CRAB Cup

Hey everyone I’m Katy Nastro this is the Beat, the only sailing webseries taking you on, offshore and well wherever the wind may take us. This episode of the Beat will warm your heart as we highlight the Chesapeake region accessible boating program or known to many as CRAB. CRAB’s mission is to help physically and developmentally disabled individuals get out on the water and enjoy sailing at any age. So come along with us through historic Annapolis and enjoy CRAB. So tell us a little bit about CRAB. It’s a local organization Chesapeake Bay and the whole purpose is to get sailors who normally would not be able to get on the water themselves. Out on boats that suit their needs and it’s it’s great we have four boats that have been competing for years in here and anybody who thinks these guys aren’t competitive is mistaken and they need to come out and race against them. it’s it’s a great event. it’s a great way to do something with my limitations and I can do just fine, I’ll sail and I’m competitive and it’s real fun for this for this they have a tiller extension which allows me to do full range of everything to do this is the freedom to get out and on the water and I can do it. Katy you picked the best weekend to be here we have the boatyard bar & grill regatta to benefit crab which is an excellent pursuit start race we got able-bodied and disabled sailors racing against each other on the same same race course it’s awesome and we have some really little kids out there and right up to guys and girls in their 70s and 80s. Loki, tell us about the regatta today it was a great day great weather great wind and a ton of boats so it was a lot of fun so neat to see the CRAB boats out there as well and kind of dicing it up with them to is really neat to see that. Well I’m a lifelong sailor I got injured when I was in college my junior year and then I stopped sailing for a number of years. It was a sport that was not being done at all for disabled people and I moved to the Annapolis area in 2003 and started sailing a lot with CRAB then it’s it’s a great regatta because we get boats from all over the place all sorts of different types of boats we have all sorts of levels of racers and people are just here have fun and recognize and support CRAB. It is so much more important to me to support the local people that are quadriplegics have no legs or want to get out on the bay that is so local so important that is why we do the CRAB regatta every year. Once a month crab hosts a sale free event where they invite any disabled people their families caregivers and friends to experience the joy of sailing newcomers and old comers who have sailed with CRAB in the past are all encouraged to come down and enjoy the wind and water. It just it’s a chance to get people out sailing who normally don’t have that opportunity and you know we have people with physical disabilities we also get people with intellectual disabilities as well as we work with the Annapolis police with at-risk youth so we get a little bit of everything. It’s good days you see people come back they’re just so happy you know we’ve had people comment that you know there’s just something they didn’t think they’d ever be able to do again. So Pricilla how long have you been participating in CRAB this other words I think three Wow and you’re how old now 12 so you’ve been doing it for a long time your old pro what’s so great about CRAB? tell us a little bit about the program. Well it helps you experience what happens on a boat. Yeah no it’s it’s awesome to just be out on the water and just feel free right? Yes! It just feels good to work with them and and see the people that thought they couldn’t go sailing at all and there they are out on the water again taking control of the boat and control of something besides their wheelchairs. What do you think about CRAB? it’s phenomenal I’ve told a lot of people about it because we have a lot of friends that are autistic like our son it’s fabulous and it’s very helpful and you know it makes their their day it makes them happy. it’s we’ve got the specially equipped boats and we get people from all over the area we do spinnaker non spinnaker all sorts of one design classes and everybody just loves it in a party which is important is awesome and it’s a great fundraiser for CRAB. Alright that’s it for this episode of the Beat. I hope you guys all enjoyed it and check us out at us sailling.org to see where we’re going next. Check you later.