Four crew members of Marin Sailing Program's Pearson 28 training ship

THE SCARIEST sailing moment for blind sailor Philip Kum was when he was practicing for a race. A large boat crashed into the boat he was on.”

Kum, a 27-year old management analyst for the United States Environmental Protection Agency, had never been on a sailboat prior to losing most of his functional vision about four years ago, only rowboats and cruise ships – all before he became blind.

“Losing my sight was definitely a huge lifestyle change for me and I went through a lot of rehab to get my life back in order,” said Kum, 27. “I had become friends with Danette Davis, an instructor at the Marin Sailing School in Sausalito, and when she asked me if I’d like to learn how to sail, I laughed, and said, ‘Sure, why not?’”
The thought that two years down the road, he would be a mainsheet trimmer on the California One team for the visually impaired, was as far from his mind as the possibility that he may regain his vision. Kum learned to sail with Davis and Al Spector, her partner at the Marin Sailing School, on their training boat, a Pearson 28.

Read the whole story in the MarinIJ …

Michelle Slade
Posted: 06/14/2010 06:17:14 PM PDT