Jerri Voda isn’t afraid of large bodies of water, even though if she were to tumble into, say, Lake Michigan, she would need her lifejacket to keep her afloat. From the moment she first sailed five years ago, Voda has loved being around water.
“One of the instructors asked who wanted to be at the helm,” says Voda, recalling the open house held by the Judd Goldman Adaptive Sailing Program that she attended in 1996. She quickly volunteered.
“They taught me how to move the boat out of the harbor [and] on to the lake, and how to move the tiller into position–simple boat maneuvers,” says Voda, who has cerebral palsy with spastic quadriparesis.
By the time she disembarked, Voda, a speech-language pathologist for the Chicago Board of Education, was hooked. She has been going to Burnham Harbor each summer since. Three years ago, she started racing.
When Voda needed a new racing partner, she approached Carol Tibus of south suburban Posen last summer. And although Tibus, who has muscular dystrophy and scoliosis, had never raced, she accepted the challenge.
The two women are among a handful of disabled women’s sailing teams in the nation. Their specially equipped boat is called a Freedom Independence 20, which is designed for accessibility and supported movement around the cockpit. For Voda and Tibus, it allows them a level of autonomy they do not have on land.
Tibus, who works for a pharmaceutical company, was introduced five years ago to the Judd Goldman program through a spinal rehabilitation class at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
“Someone came to our class and asked if the group was interested in sailing,” she recalls. “I tried it and fell in love with it.
“There aren’t any restrictions on me in the water,” adds Tibus, who must use crutches to walk. “On land, I can’t play baseball, for example, with an able-bodied person. But I can compete against able-bodied sailors.”
The 20-foot-long boat, which the program provides, is equipped with an extra-heavy keel to prevent it from tipping, and it’s slower than other boats. But the pair compete against able-bodied sailors during regular Wednesday night races sponsored by three local yacht clubs.
“There’s nothing [people] can’t achieve if their environment is adapted to meet their physical capabilities,” explains Voda, who relies on a wheelchair to get around on land. Sailing officials, she says, “allow us to use whatever we need to control the equipment.”
To steer the boat, Voda has an extension for the tiller. She also has devised her own adaptations, such as a special cushion she slips onto the boat’s seat to keep her upright when the winds get strong. She also wraps an elastic strap around her ankles and feet to secure her legs firmly in position.
The lines on the boat also are placed in locations that are convenient for Tibus to reach so she can control the sails within her range of motion.
When the two race, they have an able-bodied assistant on board in the event that conditions become impossible for them to handle–or to do simple tasks like going below to get drinking water.
Peter Goldman, a Chicago sailor, started the Judd Goldman Adaptive Sailing Foundation in 1990 in honor of his late father, who was affected by a bone disease as a teenager and could not play most sports. Despite that, he went on to become an excellent sailor. A month before Judd Goldman died in 1989, father and son discussed starting a sailing program for the disabled.
The foundation pays the expenses–salaries and equipment–for the Adaptive Sailing Program and partners with the Chicago Park District, which hires instructors and manages the program. This year, nearly 1,000 people took part in the learn-to-sail program. Some go on to race, like Voda and Tibus.
“It’s grown a lot larger than we thought,” Goldman says. “There are many more people with disabilities than in the past, because of medical science and rehabilitation.”
The key to the sailing program is independence and self-esteem, he adds.
“Your self-esteem can go downhill with a disability. You’re dependent on other people and machinery. Once people get in the program, they realize they can learn to sail and become much more independent. Carol, for example, can get in the sailboat, sit in the chair, and she’s no different than me or you who can sit in that chair. . . . She’s equal to an able-bodied person.”
And she, like Voda, can compete too.
In August, the two women took part in the 10th Annual North American Challenge Cup, a race for disabled sailors sponsored by the Chicago Yacht Club. Though they did well on day one, the extreme heat and nearly nonexistent winds caused some problems and Tibus and Voda withdrew on day two of the three-day regatta.
In their last race of the season two weeks ago, the pair finished fourth, missing third place by just one point.
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For more information on the Judd Goldman Adaptive Sailing Program, call 312-747-7684.
