The sailing school offers nautical training courses for people over the age of 14, with physical, intellectual and mental disabilities. The courses will be held on board the Hansa 303, boats particularly suitable for allowing everyone to get closer to the sea and sailing
(AGR) The first sailing school aimed at people with various disabilities was presented in La Spezia, the result of an implementing collaboration agreement stipulated on 20 July 2023 between the Navy, Northern Maritime Interregional Command, and the Italian Naval League, La Spezia section.
With this agreement, the Navy and the Italian Naval League undertake to collaborate for the promotion of maritime water sports for disabled people, organized in groups and also involving associations for the protection of protected categories.
The newly founded sailing school offers nautical training courses for people over the age of 14, with physical, intellectual and mental disabilities. The courses will be held on board the Hansa 303, boats particularly suitable for allowing everyone to approach the sea and sailing without barriers. The Hansa, in fact, are an extremely stable and easy to handle type of dinghy, which is characterized by colored sails and is able to ensure maximum freedom and safety in the practice of sailing sports and in contact with the water.
To carry out the training activities, the Hansa 303 hub in La Spezia will employ two boats from the sailing section of the Navy and a boat from the local section of the Italian Naval League. Participants in the courses will be followed by Navy and LNI instructors, with the scientific collaboration of a team of researchers and students from the departments of Experimental and Clinical Medicine and Political and Social Sciences of the University of Florence, who will monitor their progress -behavioral.
The objective pursued is to offer concrete tools, both logistical and personal, to allow the attendance of sailing courses in total safety by disseminating the culture, principles and values of the Armed Forces thanks to the technical-logistical structures of the Navy such as automated systems of embarkation and disembarkation of disabled people and thanks to the support of military personnel trained in para sailing activities.
“The Navy, by its nature linked to the sea and to all the activities that take place on the sea, always participates with enthusiasm in the initiatives carried out in order to promote the development of sailing sport. This is particularly valid in the case of this important synergy promoted together with the Naval League which aims to offer the opportunity to experience the sea and sailing to people in conditions of fragility or disability. Our Hansa 303, the qualified military instructors and our Sailing Sections are ready to support these solidarity activities in the best possible way, confirming that, even in this sector, the Armed Force does not intend to leave anyone behind” – declared the captain of the vessel Giuseppe Cannatà, head of the Navy sailing office.
“We are pleased to start this first barrier-free approach to the sea, the result of the collaboration and shared values between the Italian Naval League and the Navy. Attention to the most vulnerable and the inclusion of everyone in social and sporting activities, regardless of disability and socio-economic disadvantage, is one of the statutory tasks of the Italian Naval League, founded in La Spezia 127 years ago. The association has placed great faith in the training of expert instructors in “solidarity boating” and has invested resources in the Hansa 303, dinghies of which the LNI is currently the largest owner in Italy. We would like to export this important collaboration also to other cities where there are nautical bases of the Italian Naval League and sailing sections of the Navy” – declared team admiral Donato Marzano, president of the Italian Naval League
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