History of Sailing
Ships and vessels are among the oldest means of transport and have been used to travel since ancient times.
Sailing as a sport however developed much later with the Dutch being the first to take it up as a pastime in the 17th century.
They used small sailboats that were light and easy to navigate to sail for pleasure. These boats were called jaghts – which is where the English word yacht derives from.
It was King Charles II that introduced the sport to Britain in 1660, having discovered sailing on his travels to Holland.
International competitive sailing – or yachting as it was then known - started in the mid-19th century when members of the New York Yachting Club raced British competitors around the Isle of Wight. It then became an Olympic sport in 1900.
Although in Paralympic terms sailing is a relatively new sport having been introduced at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games as a demonstration sport before being given full medal status in Sydney in 2000 - sailing for athletes with a disability began in the 1980s.
In 1988, the International Handicap Sailing Committee (IHSC), which organised regattas and promoted sailing for people with a disability, was created and in 1990 sailing was accepted as a demonstration sport into the World Games for people with a disability.
In 1991 the IHSC was recognised by the world sailing body – now known as the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) - and was renamed the International Foundation for Disabled Sailing (IFDS).
The 1992 World Disabled Sailing Championships were held in Spain to coincide with - but not as part of - the Barcelona 1992 Paralympics. The subsequent championships experienced an extended participation beyond Western Europe and the USA and began to include teams from Australia and Armenia.
There are currently two boat classes in the Paralympic Games – the Sonar - a 23ft keelboat manned by a crew of three – and the 2.4mR single-handed keelboat.
A new boat class – the UD18 - will however be introduced to the Paralympic program in Beijing.
