Thames Sailability has now been operating for five years, providing boat trips on the “Impossible Dream” for people who are disadvantaged by reduced mobility or learning challenges. During this time, we have completed over 400 trips and carried nearly 1,000 disabled passengers.
2020 did not start the way that any of us could have anticipated. With high water levels and strong currents in January and February, immediately followed by the Covid lockdown, we only managed one trip with our disabled passengers before we were confined to our moorings.
Nonetheless, these have been exciting times for us and the team has been busy restructuring our organisation. In June we finalised our registration with the Charities Commission and, by July, we had opened our own bank account, allowing us to become an independent charity in our own right.
Our team of “retired gentlemen” remains as before so, if you come and see us at Shepperton Marina or moored up at Cowey Sale, you’ll see the same familiar faces.
Ownership of “Impossible Dream” has now been gifted to us by its previous owners (Sporting Activities for the Disabled) and we are hugely grateful to the trustees for their generosity.
Now, we are making preparations to recommence our activities at the beginning of September. The boat has been cleaned and sanitised and we shall be taking every reasonable precaution to protect our passengers and ourselves from infection.
We are always on the lookout for additional crew members so, if you know of anyone with boating experience who might like to join our team, please get in touch.
Having received no income from passenger donations and not been able to carry out fundraising events, we would be grateful for any donations towards continuing our work with handicapped people. If you are able to contribute. please use the donation page on our website or get in touch by email.
To find out more, please visit our new website at www.thamessailability.org.uk . We are also on Facebook and can be contacted by email at info@thamessailability.co.uk