A Rutland Sailability volunteer, who has dedicated her retirement to supporting disabled people to get on the water, has been honoured with the national RYA Sailability Volunteer of the Year Award.
Ex-teacher, Ann Molyneux, has been involved with disability sailing since the '80s, after meeting fellow teacher and Rutland Sailability’s top international sailor and former Paralympic hopeful, Val Millward, through their profession. But after retiring, Ann moved from Essex to Grantham to be nearer the sailors she was supporting as part of Rutland Sailability and the UK Challenger class, one of the most popular disability sailing boats.
The RYA Sailability Volunteer of the Year Award is presented each year to a volunteer who has given significant time and energy over the course of the year or towards a specific project, who goes above and beyond and is a real ambassador for all that Sailability represents.
Ann, who lives in Grantham, was presented with her award at the 2020 RYA Sailability National Conference and Awards dinner at Wyboston Lakes, Bedfordshire. Despite not being an active sailor herself, Ann is regularly found at Rutland Sailability from 9am to 9pm on Thursdays.
Meanwhile on Sundays she supports the Sailability sailors as they race alongside able-bodied sailors as part of Rutland Sailing Club’s full club racing day. This promotes true inclusivity and competition on a level playing field. Ann also travels extensively in the UK and internationally to support the Challenger class sailors.
Ann, who was previously a high level hockey player and coach, said: “I was really surprised, delighted and honoured to receive my award. There are so many volunteers who are ‘unsung heroes’ I would like to think I could receive it on behalf of all the volunteers. This has been almost like a second vocation, replacing my hockey hat and putting on a Sailability one. I’m not the sort of person who’s going to sit and retire in front of the TV!
“I get as much enjoyment working with people at the top end of the sport as I do seeing new people come in. I’ve been fortunate to travel to places like Japan and Portugal supporting Val and the other sailors at international events, and I’ve met a lot of new people and made a lot of friends through sailing. Attitudes have definitely changed towards disability sport during the time I’ve been involved. It’s stopped being ‘you can't’ and is now ‘how can we’.”
Ann is looking forward to a busy summer, with the Great British Sailing Challenge - a nine-event series offering handicap racing for all dinghies and small craft - and the Challenger Traveller Trophy (TT) series taking her all over the UK. The Challenger class’ 40th anniversary celebrations are then in Oxford in August. Ann will also be on hand when the RYA Sailability Multiclass Regatta returns to Rutland in August.
Richard Johnson, the Challenger Class Chair who is also based at Rutland, added: “Annie uses her coaching and organisational knowledge from her hockey days and recently implemented a fundamental reorganisation of the Rutland Sailability helper system to ensure newcomers are integrated into the club in the best possible way for them. She thoroughly deserves to have her magnificent efforts, which are highly appreciated by the sailors, recognised."
Sailability is the RYA’s national programme enabling people with disabilities to try sailing and take part regularly. Rutland Sailability is one of the country’s leading sites for disability sailing and last year, its volunteers won the RYA Sailability Team of the Year Award.
To discover how RYA Sailability is about #morethansailing visit www.rya.org.uk/sailability or to find out more about Rutland Sailability check out their public Facebook Group.
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