At the 2025 Yachting New Zealand Excellence Awards, the North Sails Sportsmanship Award went to Sailability Wellington, honouring the organisation's commitment to inclusivity and its groundbreaking work developing the ParAble, an innovative new yacht class built to open the sport to sailors with disabilities.
New Zealand's largest inclusive sailing programme, Sailability Wellington operates as a charitable trust with a mission to give people living with physical, intellectual, or sensory disabilities lasting access to the water. Running six days a week from three accessible hubs at Evans Bay, Seaview Marina, and Titahi Bay, the programme offers safe, structured and empowering experiences on the water. A fleet of 27 highly stable Hansa yachts, supported by three safety vessels, means sailors across the full spectrum of ability can take part with confidence, whether they are new to the sport and seeking therapeutic recreation or seasoned competitors on the national and international stage. More than 70 volunteers make it all possible, turning up to assist with rigging, hoisting, on-shore support, and on-water safety week in, week out.
Central to the award was the ParAble Project, a development effort spanning more than a decade. The ParAble was engineered as a larger, self-righting, self-bailing yacht, purpose-built for disabled sailors who need greater space, stability, or adaptability than existing designs can offer. Sailability Wellington's long-serving chief executive Don Manning drove the project from its earliest concept through to completion, and the ParAble has since been recognised as a national class and is attracting interest well beyond New Zealand's shores. Manning's guiding philosophy grew from his own childhood experience of illness and a longstanding desire to help disabled friends get on the water, and that personal conviction shaped every stage of the ParAble's development.
Manning accepted the award on behalf of the organisation. Over more than 21 years leading Sailability Wellington, he has built it into the most comprehensive disability sailing programme in the country. His focus, consistently, has been on what sailors can do rather than on any limitations they face, and that outlook defines the culture felt by the hundreds of participants and volunteers who come through the programme each year. Within the inclusive sailing community he has been described as a "living legend," and he holds a Queen's Service Medal in recognition of his contributions.
The North Sails Sportsmanship Award exists to celebrate the individuals and organisations that bring fairness, respect, inclusion, and positive spirit to the sport. Through the ParAble and through the breadth of its ongoing programme, Sailability Wellington has reshaped what participation looks like in New Zealand sailing, strengthening community ties, creating opportunities for hundreds of sailors, and offering a working model of innovation and compassion for yacht clubs around the country.
The 2025 award recognises far more than a technical achievement, impressive as that is. It acknowledges decades of steady leadership, the collective effort of a large volunteer base, and an unshakeable belief in the capacity of sailing to transform lives.
