Frank Kleinitz sailing hard for a good result
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John Mooney, Monday, 22 September 2008 One of the many core uses of the VSail-Access Simulator is rehabilitaion. Virtual Sailing issued a challenge to three rehabilitation centres to enter a 'Virtual Regatta' as a tribute to the Paralympics. Virtual Sailing invited three rehabilitation centres, who use VSail-Access simulators in their rehabilitation programs to participate in a "Virtual Regatta" as a tribute to the Paralympics. Much fuss is often made of our elite able bodied training and honing their skills on the VSail-Trainers but publicity is hard to come by for the VSail-Access sailors. "So we decided to hold a Regatta"says Virtual Sailing director Norman Saunders.
A set of Sailing Instructions was drawn up and the challenge issued to
Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Hospital (Melbourne, Australia)
Royal Rehabilitation Hospital (Sydney, Australia)
SALM (Miami, United States of America)
Although it is possible to run the regatta live by linking the VSail simulators together on-line, it was decided to allow a two week window for each institution to enter their best times. The regatta was sailed around a trapezoid course in Liberty Motor Sailor boats with 14 knots of wind. Each sailor is able to sail the course three times and register their best time. The best time overall wins the trophy for their institution.
Royal Rehabilitation (Sydney) were the first to submit their race times by their sailors Dale Williams a Sydney Sailability sailor and Phil Thompson a well known Sydney offshore sailor. The times were competitive but not good enough to stave off Royal Talbot represented by Frank Kleintz, who had previously sailed a Hobie 16 on the Gippsland Lakes before his accident 5 months ago. Frank had a faster time and he took the lead. At Virtual Sailing we nervously awaited the American entry from SALM. It did not go un-noticed that this month is the 25th anniversary of the historic Australian victory in the America's Cup. However, as with on water sailing the weather played havoc with SALM and they battened down the hatches for a hurricane and were unable to submit a race result within the time limit. They have promised to mount an America's Cup style challenge for our next international Rehabilitation challenge.
In the meantime congratulations to Frank and the support team at Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Hospital.
Click here to see Frank's winning style | 
