The students of the School of Sailing adapted with their diplomas. Photo: Rosana Calvo

The Monte Real Club de Yates held the closing event of the Adapted Sailing Course 2015-2016 on Wednesday in Baiona, where over the last year about 65 students from different associations of the disabled in Galicia participated.

This is the third course of these features that the Baionese club has been offering since the creation, in 2012, of its Adjusted School of Sailing, through which it aims to bring the sea closer to people with functional diversity so that they can navigate on equal terms.

During the last few months, students and students with physical, psychosocial, cognitive and sensory disabilities from the Juan María de Nigrán Centre, the Vontade de Tomiño Association and the Redondela Centre for the Care of Persons with Disabilities attended theoretical classes with specialized monitors, went out to navigate the bay and participated in different activities related to nautical activity.

The final brooch of the course was put this morning the delivery of diplomas held in the facilities of the Monte Real Club de Yates, an event that was chaired by the conselleiro of the Xunta de Galicia, José Manuel Rey Varela. In his intervention, the social policy holder of the autonomous administration, highlighted the great work that the Baionese club does with people with different abilities. "A society," said Rey Varela, "is valued for how it treats people, and in this sense the Mount Real Club of Yates is an example to follow."

In his intervention to the students of the adapted sailing course, the conselleiro de la Xunta mentioned the recognition for his good practices received a few months ago by the School of Adjusted Sailing of Mount Real at the International Tourism Fair in Berlin. He also recalled the distinction that the Environmental and Consumer Education Association (ADEAC) granted to the club in 2014 for its work on removing architectural barriers and caring for people with disabilities.

On the part of the Baionese club, its president, José Luis Álvarez, spoke to welcome and congratulate all the students of the course, and to thank the Xunta de Galicia for its support for the initiative, through the Social Policy Council and the Xeral Secretariat for or Sport. Vice-President Alejandro Retolaza encouraged public administrations and other companies and institutions to continue to support the Adjusted School of Sailing, so that it can expand its services and reach more and more people.

In his speech, Retolaza also recalled other initiatives promoted by the club to enhance the adapted sailing, such as the Spanish Class 2.4mR Championship, to be held in Baiona on 24, 25 and 26 this month. There are three days of race in which athletes with and without disabilities, coming from different points in Spain, will compete on equal terms in the bay of Baionese.

He also announced the celebration, on September 10, of the second edition of the Vertiathlon Solidario, a triathlon organized in collaboration with the municipality of Baiona with which they will raise funds for the School of Adjusted Sailing of Mount Real.

At the close of the Adjusted Sailing Course 2015- 2016 also attended the Xeral Director of Maior e Persoas with Discapacitade of the Xunta de Galicia, Coro Piñeiro; the social welfare councillor of Baiona, Mª Carmen Paredes; the Accessibility councillor of Baiona; Policarpo Vilar; and Inés González Megido, representing Fundación Repsol. After the diplomas were given to the students, the event ended with a family photo of all the participants and authorities present.

The next adapted sailing course at Mount Real Club de Yates will begin in September.