The Jubilee sailing Trust has been taking people with mixed ability to sea since its conception in 1976 in their accessible Tallships initially Lord Nelson and currently Tenacious literally changing lives including mine. 

Visit jst.org.uk to see the amazing work the ship does.

David Bainbridge, part time wheelchair user, is a man who thrives on challenges and last year he persuaded a group of JST supporters to get him to the top of Snowdon (without using the train) raising £20000 for essential maintenance work in the process.

This year he had the idea of trying to race the ship for one of her voyages of her circumnavigation of the UK as part of her summer program. Great Yarmouth a port that has historically strong links with JST to Canary Wharf was chosen for the start and the challenge was on.

I had been unavailable for the Snowdon challenge but as a keen biker with Portsmouth CTC looking for a new multi day event I was keen to join when I first heard about it but it was the realisation this was not just a charity bike ride but a chance to share the ethos of the JST in another sport that really fired me up. 

Tenacious allows people with all sorts of disabilities to experience the thrill of sailing ,the camaraderie of teamwork and the achievement of goals in an inclusive environment like no other. The challenge was for any human powered vehicle, with electric assistance if necessary and with support so we could have a relay team of riders of mixed ability some of whom would not otherwise be able to achieve the trip and enjoy longer distance rides. It was also a chance for cross fertilisation with mixed ability bikers having a chance to enjoy sailing and sailors biking.

Then it all fell into place. My friend Ruth who is one of JST’s doctors had a Duet, essentially a wheel chair that is pushed by a bike, that her disabled daughter Natasha loves going round in but unfortunately Natasha was not well enough for the distance of the challenge but on our voyage to Shetland we met Abi who had just bought a new bespoke race runner which she describes as a cross between a trike and a balance bike and wanted to be involved but a whole day on Jessie was obviously not practical so she offered to co pilot the Duet. Abi was unable to do the whole trip which also fitted me as my wife Ruth wanted to bike but was unsure she could manage the distance on repeated days and we wanted to have our campervan as support vehicle transporting luggage and on hand to help with any breakdowns and most important provided coffee and bacon rolls where we could not find a suitable cafe.

The T Shirt Twins who were not twins but did wear shirts from Adventures with Sight Loss.

‘T-shirt Twins’ Lauren and John who is blind and hearing impaired had sailed on Tenacious but also did rock climbing and other adventurous activities together arrived on their livid green Tandem

We had agreed to start at 3pm as the ship had to wait for the tide to depart so it was quite a short first day down through Ness point ( the most Easterly part of the UK)

 The twins went for a swim ,through Lowestoft and Beccles to Halesworth where we dispersed for the night after a very pleasant well earned pint 

As with most of this trip we had a variety of options for the night some in Premier inns some in campervans and the Twins wild camped in hammocks. We were incredibly lucky with the weather so hot we had to spend most of the afternoon in pub gardens waiting for the cool of the evening much to the irritation of the ship which was struggling with very little wind. We progressed down through Ipswich Chelmsford and Harlow. I thought Norfolk and Suffolk were flat ( that’s why I signed up for this trip surely) but oh no there where some pretty impressive hills and with the Duet only having 7 hub gears I wished I had borrowed the electric version and was not sorry when we got close enough to the end of the day for Abi to use her hobby horse. She did amazingly well especially down hill as she only had one brake operated by her knee!

The route had been well researched by David ,Graham and Sarah and was mainly on minor roads and cycle routes beautiful country side quiet villages

The last night was spent at Lee Valley and we then followed the Lee River through the olympic park on amazing green corridor in Central London. We had planned to finish the race at Tower bridge as Tenacious went through in the Pool of London but unfortunately that was not to be so decided to make the finish the Thames Barrier and despite the tide pushing Tenacious up the river at over 9 knots the bikers and well wishers where there looking relaxed to watch her through and then managed to be a wend our way through Canary Wharf road works to be there on the dockside when she came through the lock. Well done both teams.

It was a splendid event and we learnt a lot. There were 14 riders in total but normally 9 or 10 at a time. That seems a good number to support each other much like the 10 in Tenacious watch system with buddies of mixed ability helping each other. We all had different paces but soon settled into manageable supportive order so as hopefully not to inconvenience other road users.

We plan to run further mixed ability events and if we get more people would split up into similar sized units.

I was amazed by the different options and solutions for biking accessibility and again people’s resilience and trust in each other.

David, Sarah and Graham had done a lot of work checking the route for accessibility especially for the tandem and the duet but we certainly ran into some challenges requiring ingenuity and lifting. We could not have done it without being a team.

One of the highlights for me was when we had John the blind guy steering and peddling the duet with Lauren directing from the front with no control.! They didn’t get that far.