SAILING HANNAH

This week, World Sailing announced something that’s been a long time coming: the launch of the first World Sailing Inclusion Championships.

It’s a moment I’ve held onto through countless conversations, meetings, drafts, and debates. A moment I’ve fought for, believed in, and anchored myself to when the waters got rough.

And now, it’s real. It’s happening.

I’m proud – not for recognition, not for credit, but because this is another tangible step forward for inclusive sailing. One that reflects what so many of us have known all along: that this sport belongs to everyone.

But let me be clear – this isn’t a revolutionary idea. Inclusion in sailing isn’t new. It’s been present in quiet ways for decades, in the hands that helped sailors into boats, in the clubs that opened their doors, in the races where no one asked about classification, just whether you were ready to race. The Inclusion Championships don’t claim to have invented this movement. No one owns the rights to inclusion, and I certainly don’t want credit for it.

This is simply another step on the journey – an important one, yes, but part of a much larger collective effort. A milestone built on the backs of sailors, volunteers, federations, and communities who have been doing this work long before it was spotlighted and who will continue doing it, with or without headlines.

For me, disability inclusion has always been deeply personal. It’s not just a project or a job description. It’s a reflection of how I live, how I see the world, and how I believe sport should function. Disability has never been my limitation, it’s been my motivation, my lens, my power. Every time I step into this work, I do it with the belief that sailing should be a place where nobody is sidelined because of who they are or how they sail.

The Inclusion Championships are a testament to that belief. A space where skill, passion, and determination come first. Where sailors of all backgrounds, bodies, and experiences come together to race, not to tick a box, but because they belong there. Because sailing, at its core, is about freedom, and freedom should never be exclusive.

I look at this announcement and feel two things at once: immense pride, and a grounded sense of purpose. Because the job isn’t done. Not even close.

We’re building something bigger than a single event. We’re reshaping structures, rewriting policies, rethinking who we design our sport for. Through the Para Inclusive Strategy, the Inclusive Development Programme, and tools like the Accessibility Guide, we’re not just making sailing possible for more people – we’re making it visible, viable, and valued. And we’re doing it together.

This isn’t about being first.

It’s about not being the last. It’s about ensuring the door stays open, wider each time, for the next sailor, the next coach, the next federation wondering if they can be part of this movement. You can. You are.

The Inclusion Championships are not the final goal. They are part of a wider roadmap towards true equity in sailing, toward a culture where every sailor, everywhere, knows they are seen. That their voice matters. That their presence is not conditional. That pathway also leads towards sailings journey to that goal of finding its way back into the Paralympic Games.

To everyone who has backed this journey – thank you. And to those still on the fence, I say this: there is space in the boat for you. For all of us.

So here we go. Another wave, another chapter, another chance to prove that Para Inclusive sailing is not just a small part of the sport. It’s a movement.

Let’s keep going. We are all in the same boat.