UpSail's Eddie Linthout (centre, back row) at a sailing day at Torbole on Lake Garda
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David Staley, Thursday, 28 January 2010
UpSail has recently been established in Verona with the aim of facilitating access to sailing to everyone, regardless of their ability or disability.
To further this aim, UpSail have obtained exclusive distribution rights for the boats and equipment designed and built in Australia by Access Sailing Systems. With a range of boats from 2.3M to 5.8M, Access Sailing has sold more than 1,800 boats in about 20 countries. The flagship of the Access Sailing range is the SKUD 18 (Skiff of Universal Design), an exciting compact sportsboat with asymmetric spinnaker that has been selected as the two-person equipment for the 2008 and 2012 Paralympics.
Developed using the principles of Universal Design, all of the boats can be enjoyed by people with and without a disability. Four of the boats are ISAF recognised and there is a strong competition base worldwide supported by a growing international class association.
Access Sailing has also developed a range of complementary equipment and accessories to make sailing more accessible to all. These products will also be available in Italy through UpSail.
The promoter and manager of UpSail is Erwin (Eddie) Linthout. Eddie is a founding and active member of the Associazione Onlus EOS - Michele Dusi, whose activities over the past eight years have been directed toward sailing activities for people with a disability.
UpSail, as well as distributing Access sailboats, is responsible for sales of the 4.2M Emozioni trimaran designed for single and two-person crews. This project was developed within the association EOS and the boats are built by Proteus Yachts in Italy.
Through its commercial operations, UpSail aims to help support to the non-profit Access Dinghy Foundation and promote the non-profit international organization Sailability - an international organisation facilitating sailing for everyone, regardless of age or ability.
The exclusive distribution by UpSail also covers the neighbouring country of Slovenia.
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