Midwinter Races

• BIG NEWS! WE HAVE A NEW CHASE BOAT!
• Message from Our President
• Volunteer Training
• Safety! Safety! Safety!
• But...I get seasick!
• Calendar of May's Events/Activities
• Community Outreach
• Volunteer Magic - Sue T.
• Sailor Spotlight - Jordan Hay
• Board Updates

Read about this and other big news from Challenged Sailors San Diego, providing FREE SAILING for those living with disabilities.

2016 Boston Whaler Montauk 170

Our Chase Boat (CB) is vital to our operations. As many of you know, earlier in the year we had problems with the engine on our CB, and we had to cancel multiple sailing sessions. Our New Boat Committee has been researching CB options for several years, but the unreliability of current CB made it clear we needed to have a backup boat ASAP. Yesterday, we purchased the vessel pictured above. It looks like new and is the perfect size for handling the chop on San Diego Bay and carrying more passengers with safety and comfort. Many thanks to Jane Dunn and Ben Haymond for all their time and effort to find us this boat which will serve our needs for years to come!

It always amazes me how many people of goodwill Challenged Sailors attracts. There is something about helping, learning new things, and having fun on the water that brings out the best in people AND the best people. Challenged Sailors does both.

Our volunteer program grows monthly. We have over 120 active volunteers, and the demand for our services is growing as well. We added over 100 Adaptive Sailors in 2025.

Our new Community Outreach Program is attending every event where people with disabilities gather. From the San Diego Brain Injury Foundation to the Abilities Expo in Long Beach, Daniel Willan and his intrepid community outreach volunteers can be found all over SoCal, letting people know about our work.

Our Martin 16 improvement project moves forward on a monthly basis. Our 25-year-old boats are still very seaworthy, but a bit dinged up and battered from years of use. We elected to refurbish them rather than buy new boats. They return from Infinity Yacht Services looking like new. They are shiny white, with non-slip decking, new rudders and improved rigging. Some of them are being named by very generous donors. We are on the fourth boat and looking forward to having the entire fleet done by the end of the year.

Martin #9 - "Perseverance " What a beauty...as pretty a boat as you will find on San Diego Bay.

Our Training Lead coordinates a group of almost 30 instructors and 6 major courses, maintains more than 20 training documents, and develops new courses as needed. All are on our website ( challengedsailors.org/manuals).

Volunteers for any of our activities on or near the water start with a day of Dock Support training. At the end of the day everyone knows how to rig our boats, safely lift adaptive sailors in and out, launch, recover, de-rig, fold sails, and use the radio, as well as the location of all emergency equipment. Volunteers with sailing experience receive training and checkout to qualify as Companion Sailors, sailing with the Adaptive Sailors who are the heart of our mission. Interested volunteers can also receive training and checkout as Chase Boat Operators, specialized leadership roles, and advanced adaptive sailing techniques. We also have individual courses for our Companion Sailors to learn to use our specialized equipment, such as the Power Assist Units that enable Adaptive Sailors to control the boat effortlessly using a small joystick.

Whatever your interest, contact Dale Burchby ( training@challengedsailors.org) to schedule your next step!

As fun as it is to sail on the bay on one of those spring or summer days, when the wind and the water are filled with endless possibilities for adventure, we never lose sight of the fact that wind and water can be dangerous if you are not prepared. Every sailor who sails or who is down on the dock must wear a life preserver. People who run our Boston Whaler (AKA the chase boat) must have a California boaters' card. Safety is more than just doing what is required by law. We go well beyond the minimum.

After every sail the Crew Leader assesses all of our activities for opportunities to improve and maximize safety. For example, we learned that even though wheelchairs have good braking and gearing, it can fail. Our response is to assign one or two people to every person in a wheelchair to go down the ramp to keep the wheelchair from running down the ramp and ending up in the water. And while on the deck, we ensure that it doesn't get bumped or moved accidentally. We work hard to anticipate how things could go wrong and work to address those items before they become real issues. And we always invite our adaptive sailors, and volunteers to offer any sort of insight they might have about improving safety.

We work very hard to ensure that all the boats are perfectly maintained but when we are on the water, our marine radios become the lifeline, every boat has a radio and they connect to the dock and the chase boat. If you have any sort of problem on the water, you hail (sailor word) the Chase Boat and they will come zooming to you, ready to solve any and all problems.

As we talk to potential volunteers, folks will often say, I don't know how to sail, or the dreaded, "but...I get seasick." No problemo! If you like the idea of being on the water or near it, and/or if you like the idea of helping others, we have a place for you. We often talk about volunteers who rig the boats, or who sail with our adaptive sailors, we have so many more opportunties for volunteers. We need mechanical people. We need electrical people. We need marketing people. We need people who can organize events, we need volunteers whose only role is to make sure the after-sail-snacks are filled up. We need people with trucks who can help haul boats. The list is wide open. Good will, a desire to help, a willing hand will always find a place. If you have thought about volunteering with us, but think you have some impediment against it, think again... We need you. Come and lend a hand.

One of our Martin sailboats with its spinnaker glowing in the sunshine.

Friday and Saturday Sailing 955 Harbor Island Dr Dock D, San Diego (Safe Harbor Sun Road Marina)

Friday May 1 and Saturday May 2 11:30 AM - 3 PM

Friday May 8 and Saturday May 9 11:30 AM - 3 PM

Friday May 15 and Saturday May 16 11:30 AM - 3 PM

Friday May 22 and Saturday May 23 11:30 AM - 3 PM

Friday May 29 and Saturday May 30 11:30 AM - 3 PM

Learn the rules of racing

(Seminar) Rules of Racing

Tuesday, May 19·6:30 – 9:00pm

San Diego Yacht Club, 1011 Anchorage Ln, San Diego, CA 92106,

In the Jessop Room No Charge, Open to all, hosted by SDYC

All of our volunteers are magic...Introducing one of our favorite magicians, Sue T. She makes magic happen every weekend. Sue is an adaptive sailor and a volunteer. You can do both and many folks do!! Sue is our scheduler. She is the person you contact when you want to sail and she will tell you when a boat is available and schedule it for you, and she will schedule a companion sailor to go with you. Then she schedules all of the other volunteers that make the magic happen. She schedules dock support, and everything else. It might not seem like much given we 'only' have 10 boats. But 10 boats mean 20 people. 10 boats mean at least 4 people on the dock. Every time we sail the chase boat must go out as well, that is at least 2 people. Sue does this every week, and keeps at least 100 volunteer names and at least 100 sailor names straight. And she does it with a smile and unending amounts of patience.

Sue is also a sailor and a fearsome racer. When she is on the course everyone better be at the top of their game, because that girl takes no prisoners.

Sue Taetzsch - AKA Sue T.

Sue and Morgan in first place rounding the weather mark at the KMAC regatta

Community Outreach (CO) here! Wow—what an exciting couple of months we’ve had. We (Penny Anders, Robin Rierdan, and Dan Willan) attended the SDSU Expo Spinal Network, San Diego Brain Injury 5K, Abilities Expo LA, Veterans Village of San Diego video production, and Center for the Blind Alumni event.

We have some upcoming events: Center for the Blind Strives for Sight 5K and the Navy Wounded Warriors Expo. CSSD CO will need help with our biggest event, June 11–14, 2026—the San Diego International Boat Show at our home--Sunroad Marina. We will need morning and afternoon shifts covered. Put on your best yachting outfit and come support us, talk with prospective adaptive sailors and volunteers, and maybe even meet a new donor. More details to come.

If you know of an organization that supports people with any disability who would like to speak to us, or who is holding an event and is looking for people bring their information, table and canopy, we will always attend. Please let us know.

Also if you know of a place that could benefit from a Challenged Sailors poster, in their breakroom, on their counter or in their window or in any location. Someone always knows someone who might enjoy this. Help us spread the word.

On the horizon: the CSSD CO Racing Program—shhh, it’s a secret. All I can say is…

Robin Rierdan and Penny Anders at the San Diego Brain Injury 5K

When the weather gets cold and gloomy in Scotland, we know that one of our favorite sailors will arrive on the wind (so to speak) with his parents. Scotland's notoriously gloomy and rainy winters sends Jordan Hay and his mother, Susan, and father, Derek to sunny San Diego where they split their time between San Diego on a sailboat and in Palm Desert. Jordan, who has cerebral palsy, has sailed with his parents for much of his life. It was only natural that he would look for opportunities to sail when he was in San Diego. He found us and we found him in 2024 and the rest is history. When he is in town, you can find him down on the dock, nearly every Saturday, sailing and enjoying life on the water. Jordan communicates with his companion sailor with a typing tool, encased in a ziplock bag so as not to get it wet and uses the specially adapted joy stick to control the sails.

When spring returns to Scotland, Jordan and his family fly home to Fairkirk, a small town in the Central Lowlands. It is hard for him to leave beautiful San Diego behind to return to manage the staff of his landscaping business and where he is also chief expert grader, being more adept with a joystick than most folks.

Sailing and sunshine brought Jordan to us. We are grateful and look forward to his arrival every year.

Jordan enjoying life in San Diego.

If you look carefully, you can see Jordan digging away in his excavator with his wheel chair right next to him.

Our powerhouse Board keeps our sails full and our mission on course! Their strategic vision, financial expertise, and community connections ensure Challenged Sailors San Diego delivers smooth sailing and nonstop adventure all year long.

Each year Challenged Sailors replaces four of the eight members of our Board of Directors, who will each serve a two-year term. And at the end of next year, we replace the other four for two years. This maintains continuity and institutional knowledge.

The most significant leadership update is the appointment of Steve Bridge, MD, as President of Challenged Sailors San Diego. Steve is a familiar face on the docks and on the water, and has recently been serving as Vice President. Peter Phillips will continue serving on the board as Vice President in the interim.

The current board of directors is:

We are looking for people to step up as:

What skills and talents do you have that can help us continue to be the best that we can be? If you're interested in being considered for, or want to learn more about, a position just email Steve Bridge, or call at 619-665-5716.

Steve Bridge, MD President

For those living with disabilities: MS, CP, TBI, quadri or paraplegia, Down syndrome, hearing impaired, blind...we are YOUR program that sails EVERY WEEKEND to get you 100% FREE on the water with special adaptive boats. Safe and fun. No experience necessary.

You on a sailboat is just a click away. If you've been gone from our docks for a while then there’s never a better time to come back.

Honor the mission with a contribution that enables us to continue delivering the creation of bonds through shared experiences of generosity and compassion.

This is San Diego and #WeSailEveryWeekend. Our program exists through the generosity of people in our community. Please consider making a donation to help us continuously achieve our mission. Every weekend.

Our Contact Information

Challenged Sailors San Diego, Inc.

PO Box 6994San Diego, CA 92166

619-665-5716

http://www.challengedsailors.org

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