All the trainees on board the Polish Class B vessel Zawisza Czarny are looking forward to the challenge of taking part in The Tall Ships’ Races. Few of them have been to sea before which means they are complete novices around their ship, but for 16 of them there is an additional challenge to overcome, as they are blind or visually impaired.

Captain Janusz Zbierajewski explains that the idea first came from a famous Polish shanty singer, Roman Roczen, who had a deep love of singing shanties and sailing life but had never had the chance of going to sea. He met Captain Zbierajewski at a shanty singing competition a few years ago and the subject of taking blind people to sea came up. The captain said he would be happy to take Roman if he wanted to go and so the project was developed. In 2006 one voyage took place with half the crew made up of blind people. In 2007, two voyages were undertaken and since then they have received many many applications and so this year there will be three voyages.

Photo, left to right: Michal Rabiej and Captain Janusz Zbierajewski.
“To start with we tended to help the blind trainees to do things but then we realised they didn’t want help and wanted to do more and more. They wanted to challenge themselves. So we started to push them more and more and at the same time realised we needed more blind people on board so they formed a critical mass of crew members. It has grown and grown and now we have many more applications than we have places!”

As the trainees wanted to do more, so the ship had to create gadgets that would mean they could do almost everything that the sighted crew could do. A full ship’s manual has been created in braille. It charts the entire ship with diagrams on how the sails work and so explains why they are pulling ropes and what effect it is having. There is a talking compass and a talking rudder indicator with an earpiece so the trainees can hear even in bad weather and adjust course accordingly.

One trainee who is about to take part in his second voyage is Michal Rabiej. “I have always loved singing shanties but never thought anyone would take me sailing,” said Michal who comes from a mountainous area of Poland. “That first trip on Zawisza Czarny last year helped me to discover that I could be a key member of the crew and the experience was the best thing that has ever happened to me in my life.”

Now Michal is able to help others that board the ship for the first time. “I tell them they are going to discover something about themselves and that something of the power of the sea will be left inside them after the trip. They will rise to the challenge and the achievement will translate to other parts of their lives.”

Michal claims he was never scared even though he could not see what he was doing most of the time. “Very few people are scared and even if they do for a short while, they overcome it very quickly and end up stronger than they ever thought possible.”

Captain Zbierajewski says that many people called him crazy when he told them he was about to take blind people out sailing. “Half my ship is blind so they thought I was mad! But I can see these people are strong and rise to the challenge quickly. One woman sailed with me last year had been blind for six years due to diabetes. She sent me a text message afterwards saying simply, ‘thank you for giving me back my life’. That is enough reward for me, to know it can change lives.”

Zawisza Czarny will be joining the other ships in the fleet at the race start tomorrow at 1900 local time. The race to Den Helder in the Netherlands is due to last around seven days. The fleet are due in Den Helder on Wednesday 20 August.

Related Posts