Sailors Find Joy Again at American, Larchmont Yacht Club Regatta

 After five hours of racing, 50 sailors from across the country sailed up to the American Yacht Club with sunburns and smiles last Friday afternoon. The Robie Pierce Regatta was run with the same rules and regulations as any other boat race, but with just one small difference—the competitors were disabled.

The wheelchairs that volunteers rolled down to the docks as the racers made their way back in were the only thing that gave them away as they pulled up on that hot Friday afternoon, the first day of the race.

As the sailors docked their boats, some with less noticeable impairments hopped on the dock and helped hoist others who are paraplegic or quadriplegic out of their seats. The boats, Ideal 18s, are adapted for people with disabilities. They have seats installed and a wooden frame to keep sailors in place. The Regatta allows people with a wide range of disabilities to participate. People who are blind, deaf, paraplegic or quadriplegic, and who suffer from Traumatic Brain Injury or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and other brain injuries all sailed this year. The race requires two sailors with disabilities to sail with one “able-bodied” sailor.

“Sailing is the only sport where disabled and able bodied people can compete on an equal basis,” said Bill Sandberg, a Robie Pierce Regatta co-chair and American Yacht Club member. Sandberg helped create the Pierce Regatta after getting involved with the 1998 World Disabled Sailing Championship while he worked for Rolex.

“This is not a charity, we run a serious race out there,” said Siobhan Reilly, an American Yacht Club Fleet Captain and co-chair of the Regatta. “It is a competitive environment open to having new people join it.”

About 60 American and Larchmont Yacht Club member volunteers work together to host the regatta each year, a special partnership because usually the two local clubs are fierce competitors on the water. Heineken is a major sponsor that has been with the race since the start. They have also attracted other corporate sponsors like Subaru, Green Mountain Coffee, Nasdaq, and others.

Co-chairs Sandberg and Reilly spend about a year working with Larchmont Yacht Club co-chair Buttons (Edward) Padin to organize the race. All three are always inspired by the participants and their stories, they said. Some are Paralympic medalists; others are first-timers who are just discovering the joy of sailing.

“Most people had a normal childhood and got some disease or were in an accident and then they are angry at the world,” said Sandberg. “We introduce them to sailing and they realize life goes on.” They chose to name the regatta after Robie Pierce because they felt he embodied everything they wanted the race to be, Reilly said. Pierce is an avid sailor who, after being diagnosed with MS in 1985, helped create the world of adaptive sailing.  

“Finding Joy Again”  

Over the last five years the regatta held in Pierce's name has helped dozens of people who were left depressed or hopeless after facing some extreme adversity. Sailing competitively on teams helped participants find joy again, they say, and a community of others who are like themselves, even if their disabilities are different.

Jim Scott is a 30-year-old Portsmouth, New Hampshire man who was in a drunk driving incident seven years ago that caused hemiparesis, a weakness in his left side that is close to but not complete paralysis, a symptom some stroke victims suffer; and TBI. He walks with a limp, suffers from short-term memory loss and can become overwhelmed very easily.  

Once an avid golfer, soccer, hockey and baseball player, Scott never thought he would be an athlete again after he awoke from a coma after the accident. He was depressed for years, he said.

Four years ago Scott meant Dr. Ted King, a lifelong sailor who suffered a stroke ten years ago that left him with similar impairments as Scott’s. Dr. King told Scott to come to the Robie Pierce Regatta and try sailing. After battling self-doubt and concern he would fail because he had never sailed before, Scott made his way to Rye for the second annual event.

“We won the first practice race and he has been hooked ever since,” Dr. King said of Scott.

“When you are sailing you don’t really think,” Scott said. “And it is good to be back into a competitive sport.” The experience has helped him to reevaluate what life can be after going through such a trauma.

“I am never going to be happy I had a brain injury but I never would have met Ted,” he said. Scott recently published a memoir, More Than a Speed Bump, that is selling well and he has been talking to schools about his accident.

Another group of sailors who raced against Dr. King and Scott last week were military veterans from the Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors, BADS.

“I feel pure joy,” said Vivian Snyder, an Oakland, California resident who was in a traumatic helicopter crash while in the U.S. Army eight years ago. Snyder, 48, broke her back and legs and suffers from TBI. As a member of BADS, Snyder got involved with sailing only seven months ago and it has already changed her life, she said.   

“I felt a sense of pure joy for the first time since joining the army,” she said. “Sailing was the thing that got me up and off the couch and out of the house. It got me living again and feeling again.”

Snyder said she thought she wouldn’t be good enough or wasn’t “disabled enough” to participate in the race, but she realized that none of that matters.

“I want people to know you don’t need to know about sailing and you are never 'not disabled' enough to participate. If anyone is questioning if they should come, definitely come.”