Excalibur Sailing Team

Excalibur currently consists of Keith Harris (helm), Jo Firth (crew),Peter Jones (shore crew) and Keiths’ care support team.

Keith Harris - Helm

I'm Keith Harris and I have been disabled since the age of six months having contracted an adult strain of flu. I had a temperature of 105° for a week which damage the nerves that controls movement. I am now only able to reliably move my mouth and tongue and use this to control all of my equipment.

I have sailed regularly for the past 10 years starting off using a 1 m radio control yacht at Poole Radio Yacht Club. After moving in to my own bungalow in 2005 with 24 hour care I progressed onto sailing single seater boats using a tongue operated jostick.

I joined New Forest and District Sailability in April 2006 and because I already knew the basics of sailing they were in no hesitation but to put me in a single seater straightaway with a joystick control to work the rudder and sails.

I started racing in September 2006 having just bought my own access 2.3, an eight-foot single seat dinghy with a single sail. Access boats are specifically designed with disabled people in mind, With an incredibly heavy keel they are impossible to capsise. I sailed Orville (my access 2.3) for three years and then briefly upgraded to an access Liberty.

In the UK there is a very active race circuit for disabled sailors to competein . With 10 events held at Sailability clubs around England there are normally up to 50 competitors sailing. In 2009 I came second in the country winning four races out of eight I attended. I also came third in the French nationals and second at the multiclass regatta at Rutland water.

In June 2010 I was given the opportunity to buy a SKUD 18 at a very reasonable price. Normally a second-hand SKUD sells for £10,000 but I got mine for £7000, an offer I could not refuse.

Ever since I started sailing I have always said "one day I will get to the Paralympics" and I am now living that dream...

Jo Firth - Boat Crew/Sail Trimmer

We are hoping we have found a permanent crew in Jo but she still needs to be classified by and official National/International classifier.  This will be done as soon as possible.

I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1992 after which I started swimming as part of a physiotherapy programme to help with my walking. After a while I decided that as I was already in the pool I might as well have a swim. The manager at the local pool encouraged me to start training and learn how to swim all the other strokes as I was only swimming breaststroke. Having joined the Street Swimming Club and was taught frontcrawl.

I competed in swimming as an S7, the classification scale being 1-10 with 1 being most disabled. In 1998 I attended my first disability Swimming National Championships in Darlington and won my first medal - bronze in the 50m Backstroke. I then went on to win 6 National Titles mainly in freestyle events.

In 2005 I attended the World Masters Games in Canada winning gold medals in 50m, 100m, 200m,and 800m, all freestyle as well as silver in 400m freestyle. I set a new British Record for the longcourse 1500m freestyle which still stands today and I set British shortcourse records at 1500m and 800m freestyle, both of which still stand.
In 2009, I attended the World Masters Games in Sydney where I won  golds medals in the 50m, 200m, 400m, 800m freestyle, together with a silver in the 100m.

Each year I take part in the BLDSA Postal Swim and I won 12 successive gold medals from 1998 untill 2009. Unfortunately I was unable to take part in 2010 due to illness but returned to the competition this year where hopefully I have won gold again. After a long career in swimming I decided to retire from swimming this year and started to look for another sporting challenge to fill my time. I was therefore really excited when I found out about Keith’s sailing team and their hunt for a crew member for the dinghy. I am extremely proud to be part of the team and am looking forward to the journey towards paralympic gold.

Peter Jones - Shore Crew

Peter helps run a sailing club in the South West. A RYA Senior Instructor, he coaches a successful youth squad and has  been racing for 14 years. With a previous involvement with 3 Paralympic campaigns an

d having attended three

national and world championships with SKUD teams, Peter is a great asset to the success of Excalibur Sailing Team.