Off The Water - Episode 18 - VISA GB come to Scotland

Marc Turner met up with Lorraine Dodge and a group of visually impaired sailors at the end of a week’s sailing on the Clyde last year and thought it a great idea to share the story of their trip and the organisation.

To find out more about this charity, ran by visually impaired sailors, we caught up with Lorraine Dodge, a trustee with VISA-GB, who, alongside volunteer skipper Steve Benn and sailors Liza Marsden from Ayr and Robert Smith from Ayr, joined us in our latest podcast.

Before we recorded the podcast Lorraine briefly told us a little about the group.

 “It was Visa-GB second sailing trip In Scotland. Covid 19 had delayed our return. Around 40 members of the visually impaired sailing association we’re meeting in Largs, to spend a week sailing in the area. Visa -GB is a charity and our aim is to encourage and support blind and visually impaired people to take part in sailing.”

“We offer opportunities for racing, long and short voyages cruises abroad. Our commitment to the membership is that we will encourage and support skippers and volunteers to be at the heart of the visa -gb Sailing experience. Taking part in the activities that makes the boat run smoothly. This includes, checking engines , hauling up and taking down sails, Putting fenders in and out. navigating in and out of ports, cleaning and cooking, and generally having a lot of fun, with other people . It’s all hands on deck-when you sail with us, with Visa-gb.”

The podcast hears from those involved, how they manage the voyages and why they came to Scotland to go sailing. For us it really demonstrates the diversity and inclusion that activities afloat enable and it was so great to meet Lorraine and the sailors with VISA-GB.

If you would like to find out more about membership, volunteering and more about VISA-GB, then please go to their website at https://visa-gb.org.uk/