Costs

The costs of the project

-The sailability boats that have been specially designed to be more stable and easier to manoveur for people with disabilities. For example RS make a boat called the RS Venture Connect, which starts at £13,153. The large cockpit inside the venture allows for up to 8 people, which would mean 7 and an instructor. This could be a course in itself which means that possibly only one boat is needed for the centre at least to begin with. A joystick or sip/puff system can be used to control the boat. Either sucking or puffing out breath moves the rudder allowing a person with lack of mobility to steer the boat. 

-Furthermore the cost of training already employed staff or finding new staff that are already trained. The RYA offer awareness training for instructors to help them work with disabled people. Typically at Whitlingham at the moment one type of course is run by itself and not split into multiple classes. However as one of the main targets for this sailing is special schools, attracting many people may be beneficial. Therefore the course could be split into seperate classes, meaning an entire school could be accounted for. However the cost benefit analysis needs to be taken here, to see if its more beneficial to have many students at a time but have to pay more instructors and invest in multiple boats. The other option is to have fewer students and only have 1 or 2 members of staff and only one boat. This may be something that changes as the project progresses, maybe the centre could start with just one boat and host classes of 6 or 7.

- The cost of a crane to be installed to help people into and out of boats. Whitlingham already has one crane, which would be enough at the start of the project if only was class in one boat was being run. However if the project is successful and multiple classes are being run simultaneously, then the investment of another crane may be nessarsary.  An example of this is the Hereford Hoist which is designed specifically  to lift wheetchair users in and out of boats. It is easy to use and hand operated. Furthermore it is designed so it can fit almost any kind of pontoon system. I have contacted the seller to enquire about a price.

-The boats that are needed to be stable enough for the disabled people to be safe in them are keelboats. This usually means that they have to be kept on an afloat mooring however this special design of boat has an easy lift keel which allows for ease of launch and storage ashore. The RS Venture Connect is a similar length and width to a wayfarer which Whitlingham have six of. With some possbile adjustments to the layout boat park, a singe one of these RS boats could be fitted in with no real modifications to the site.