Joseph Hawkins enjoys sailing, especially the excitement of racing in small Hobie Cats.
Just like thousands of other Chicagoans.
Stanley Stanford enjoys sailing, too, especially the feeling of accomplishment that comes from doing everything right.
Also just like thousands of others.
With one difference.
Many skippers would be reluctant to invite Hawkins or Stanford onto their sailboats, because both are confined to wheelchairs. Hawkins was paralyzed in an auto accident in 1982, and Stanford`s legs were amputated three years ago because of illness.
Make that two differences: Hawkins and Stanford aren`t your typical sailors, but then the instruction they`re receiving isn`t your typical sailing school. The two men are part of the Judd Goldman Adapt-A-Sail Program of the Chicago Park District, which aims to demonstrate that few handicaps should keep an interested person off the water.
”It was just tremendous,” Stanford said, recalling his first sail in June 1990. ”It was something I never thought I could do.
”It really gave me the will to continue,” he added. ”I had been a little depressed. I`m a dentist, and I couldn`t practice. This was the thing that brought me around.”
Jeffrey Fetkenhour, head of the Judd Goldman program, said the classes are a logical extension of the park district`s mission: ”To provide sailing to everybody-and `everybody` means those who otherwise could not afford it and, of course, those who would need some additional adaptations for accessibility.
”The disabled program was the last component of the community sailing program.”
In its second year, the Judd Goldman program has about 40 ”graduates”
of its basic instructional program, and another 115-plus who signed up for
”custom sailing programs, designed with particular groups to come out and sample sailing.”
This year, the program continues with three levels: basic crew training, an advanced class for skipper training and a racing program. It will wrap up at summer`s end with the Judd Goldman Cup regatta.
Hawkins and Stanford, who expect to pass the skipper`s test soon, plan to race.
”I like competing,” said Hawkins, who began racing the small, double-hulled Hobie Cats last summer. Stanford is looking forward to racing against members of area yacht clubs.
The story of the Judd Goldman program has dual beginnings, one in Chicago and the other in Newport, R.I. Both stemmed from the same desire: to find a way to make sailing accessible to people with physical handicaps.
About five years ago, a Newport organization for the handicapped, Shake A Leg, approached Everett Pearson, president of Tillotson Pearson Inc.
Pearson is a big name in sailing; his former company, Pearson Yachts, designed, manufactured and sold thousands of boats still on waters nationwide. He sold that company and set up Tillotson Pearson, which makes a variety of industrial products, swimming exercise machines and the popular J series of racing sailboats. At the time, the company also made Freedom Yachts.
The Shake A Leg representatives ”had no idea what they wanted in a boat,” Pearson said. ”They wanted a boat big enough to sail around Newport Harbor.”
They also had the usual problem: They had nomoney.
”I thought about it and said, `I`ll do it.` I sat down and thought about the type of boat we should have-the shape of it, the size. I called up (boat designer) Gary Mull and gave him the commission to design the boat and gave him the specifications I wanted.”
Pearson used his years of sailing and design experience to dictate those specs.
”We wanted a boat that would have a lot of initial stability. We wanted a small boat-20 feet. We needed a boat that would be extremely stiff, meaning it would stand up to a breeze and would not capsize. We wanted a boat with a large cockpit, big enough so we could put two paraplegics or quadriplegics in the cockpit with a third or fourth person. We wanted a seating arrangement to enable them to move from side to side in the boat.”
Pearson and Mull used a 20-foot Freedom as the basic boat, then adapted it.
They opted for swivel seats, one near the tiller and one near the lines that control the sails. The seats automatically swing to the high side of the boat if it begins heeling or can be locked in place at the sailor`s discretion. The seats are padded and have strong backs to support people with little upper-body strength.
Pearson donated the first Freedom 20 to Shake A Leg in Newport. Word spread, and he donated another to the National Ocean Access Program near Washington and a third to a fledgling program in San Francisco.
Two years ago, Pearson sold Freedom Yachts. The adapted sailboats still were available, and organizations around the U.S. were expressing interest, but Pearson no longer was in a position to donate them.
”I turned the molds back to Freedom when we sold it, so I`ll never make any money on it,” Pearson said. ”We never intended to. It was something we thought we should do. How far do you go? I was a lot more into the bloody thing than I ever started out to do.
”I thought I`d let other people see if they could keep it rolling.”
In Chicago, meanwhile, a parallel chain of events was taking place.
At the end of the summer in 1988, the Chicago Park District made a commitment to update and expand the Rainbow Fleet sailing program. The fleet was shifted from the parks and recreation division to the marine division of the park district.
The marine division began making changes quickly.
Programs were offered in five locations instead of one, classes were available for all age groups instead of just adults, sailboats were made available for rental instead of just classes, one-on-one instruction was offered instead of just group classes.
The district also sold its small Penguin dinghies in favor of 32 14-foot Barnett sailboats, considered more stable and easier to handle, as well as sailboards, two-hulled 16-foot Hobie Cats and an inflatable Avon rescue craft. The last component of the expansion was offering sailing to handicapped people. At the end of his stint as a seasonal instructor in 1988, the park district hired Fetkenhour permanently to head the new project.
The program had the usual problem: It had no money to buy the Freedom 20s it needed.
Step One was to discuss plans with area boating organizations, including the Columbia Yacht Club in Monroe Harbor, the Windy City Outdoors Club, the city`s Department on Aging and Disability, Access Living and anybody else who showed an interest. The marine division held an open house to explain plans.
”The turnaround time on this program is what`s so remarkable,”
Fetkenhour said.
That open house got some press coverage, and Chicago businessman Judd Goldman read one of the articles. Goldman, who was stricken with a damaging bone disease when he was 17, loved to sail and was intrigued by the park district`s bold plan.
”He called me on Sept. 13, 1989,” Fetkenhour recalled. ”He told me he thought what we were trying to do was great, and that he wanted to buy us a boat. I didn`t believe him at first.”
The two men met and discussed plans. But Goldman died in October 1989.
Fetkenhour put together a proposal to set up a non-profit organization to seek contributions. And then he was asked to meet with Peter Goldman, Judd`s son and a member of the already interested Columbia Yacht Club. Also at that meeting was Bob Nelson, head of the park district`s marine division, and John Lancaster, a former director of the National Ocean Access Program, which had one of Pearson`s Freedom 20s.
”We batted around ideas at that luncheon,” Fetkenhour recalled.
”Nelson called me in his office and said, `This is going to be a park district program.`
”Shortly thereafter Peter Goldman called up and said he wanted to pick up where his father left off.”
Peter and Sliv Goldman, Judd`s widow, donated $80,000 in Judd`s name. That was enough to buy three Freedom Independence 20s. The boats were ordered in February 1990 and dedicated in June at Burnham Harbor, which remains the program`s headquarters.
Instructors, recruited from yacht clubs, the U.S. Yacht Racing Union, area college placement centers and sailing clubs, were given a four-hour disability awareness class designed with help from the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and the city`s Department on Aging and Disability (now two departments).
”The agenda during that training ranges from the psychology of working with the disabled to hands-on training,” Fetkenhour said. ”This year the Chicago Hearing Society also is involved. We`re going to try to cater more to the sensory impaired as well as to the physically impaired.”
Recruiting instructors was a little tough last year. ”Since then, because the program created such a reputation so quickly, we`re finding people are coming to us,” Fetkenhour said.
Hawkins and Stanford were among the first to try out the new boats. Neither had ever sailed before, though Stanford said he`d always wanted to try.
He learned of the program from a woman he`d met in the hospital. She had seen him reading a sailing magazine, and remembered his interest. Hawkins learned of the opportunity from the Rehab Institute.
Stanford, who lives in Hinsdale, credits the program for showing him he still could accomplish goals.
”It`s the accomplishment, it`s something I can do,” he said. ”I can take a boat out and sail it correctly. I like the feeling of a job well done. There`s always a question, `Can I really handle it?` in the back of your mind.”
Hawkins, a computer analyst who lives in Chicago, sailed for about a month last summer on the Freedom 20. Then he discovered the park district`s 16-foot Hobie Cats, catamarans with no special features for the handicapped. He sails by hanging on with one hand, and using the other to handle any jobs he`s assigned.
”I`ve actually been competing in races,” he said. ”We went off to a national Hobie Cat race in Redding, Calif., last September, and my team came in fifth place.
”I think I like the Hobies better than the Freedom,” Hawkins said.
”It`s more exciting. You`re down there right at the water line.”
Before beginning classes, all students must prove they can be in the water, wearing a life vest, without panicking.
This rule is not waived for handicapped, elderly or any other student.
Hawkins, Stanford and the rest of the students in the classes for the handicapped must learn to handle every aspect of the boat. The person sitting in the aft, or farthest back, seat, steers. The person in the forward seat is in charge of raising, lowering and adjusting sails.
To pass the classes sailors must be able to do both, though not on the same trip because they can`t switch seats.
Quadriplegics or others without use of arms can`t do many of the jobs. To be certified, they must be able to clearly instruct somebody else in exactly what to do, how and when.
To be certified as crew, students must take six two-hour classes. To be certified as skipper requires another 12 hours. Those who finish the second block of classes are given two tests, one written and the other on water. If they pass, they are eligible to rent the Freedoms and take them out without instructors.
The on-water test covers everything, starting with getting the engine running. The sailor must get the boat out of the harbor, raise the sails and cover a triangular course, so the sails have to be adjusted to fit every possible point of sail. Then the sailor has to bring the boat back to the dock.
Racers generally are expected to have passed at least the first block of classes.
The Judd Goldman program, which operates out of the park district building at the northeast corner of Burnham Harbor, can be reached at 312-294-3299. The marine division, which operates out of the Chicago Park District`s headquarters on McFetridge Drive, can be reached at 312-294-2270.
In only a year, the Judd Goldman program has proven that there`s no link between physical ability and enjoyment of sailing.
”In the wintertime, I feel like a caged animal,” Stanford said, echoing the thoughts of millions of boaters nationwide.
The next step? ”When we find some money, we`re probably going to be looking for a boat,” he said.
Just like thousands of others.
