We met Olivia, happy to have left Paris at the beginning of December 2020 to join La Rochelle and be closer to Estrella Lab. She tells us about this project that came to fruition just one year ago..
The genesis of the project.
Olivia discovered sailing as a child in Brittany: Optimist, OBI4, family cruises... 10 years ago, following a bad dive, she became paralyzed and had to learn to live in a wheelchair. Adventurous at heart, she continues to take on many challenges: travelling through Argentina for 3 months in a 4X4, paragliding, kayaking..
She rediscovered sailing in the North Seas in 2013 and during the Tall Ship Race on the Lord Nelson, a 3-masted sailboat from 1985, 55 m long, which welcomes all types of disabilities. Then she discovered the association "Cap Handi", created by the navigator Christophe Souchaud in 2014 following his "Rhum Solitaire, Rhum Solidaire". It proves that disability at sea is not a problem, but an asset. Olivia will take part in numerous sailing trips on the association's First 40.7 specially equipped to receive people with disabilities. In particular, she will cross from the Canaries to Le Marin in Martinique during the 2017 Mini Transat.
She creates this same year, the association "We Wheel Rock You" and organizes adventures of diving, kayaking ... and a famous "boat-trip of all possibilities" in collaboration with "Cap Handi" and "UCPA" in October 2019 in El Hierro in the Canary Islands where she will bring a group of disabled to paragliding, diving and sailing. Due to weather and timing, she will only be able to introduce sailing to part of the group from El Hiero to Tenérife. She will decide to participate in the reassembly of the First 40.7 to La Rochelle. "I realized during this crossing that this was what I wanted to do: to be at sea and to share moments of adventure with disabled people through a common activity: sailing."
Estrella Lab : A Sunreef 60S
She will be back at the end of October 2019 and has only one idea in mind: to find a boat to offer her adventure activities to as many people as possible and thus be autonomous in the organization of sailing programs. She is looking for a sailboat with an aluminum hull to be able to do offshore sailing in the Great North. Everything went very fast, in December 2019 she became the owner of Estrella Lab, a 2006 Sunreef 60S that had spent 2 years in Port Napoleon in the Mediterranean for lack of a buyer and that was just asking to go on an adventure.
In January 2020, accompanied by Christophe Souchaud, Davis Mars, François Lassort and Olivier Aulon, Olivia took Estrella Lab up to La Rochelle to the Bassin des Chalutiers where the port director Patrick Faucher welcomed them in a "sea commission".
« At the time of the crossing, the boat was not yet equipped to receive a disabled public. We spent many nights thinking about what we could put in place. Between my overflowing imagination and Christophe's technical knowledge, we succeeded in validating the specific equipment necessary to receive a maximum of people.., confides to us Olivia . In the spring of 2020, Christophe Souchaud realized all the first ideas that had emerged from this trip.
A handmade custom equipment to make the boat accessible to the greatest number.
In June 2020, the association Hisse l'Etoile is created, a team is constituted and it will promote the navigation programs on Estrella Lab.
After having exchanged with representatives of different handicaps (visual, motor...), the equipment could be set up and adapted. The association got many feedbacks and it is in August 2020 that they left to make a first navigation to Brittany to promote the association.
"Many things are still to be optimized, but the main ideas are there. Because of the containment, the development work has been suspended, but it will resume in January 2021 for 3 months of construction work in order to make Estrella Lab accessible to the greatest number of people and to receive you from April 2021 for day, week and campaign sailings" says Olivia.
Here is an overview of the specific facilities currently in place:
Access to the boat
A wooden walkway has been installed so that a wheelchair can get directly onto the boat without having to use the harness and sheets. Ideally, Olivia would like to install an electric platform that could go down to the pontoon and back up to the boat deck.
The cockpit
The cockpit has been transformed. "We moved the table and created a custom bench attached to a rail system that can move up and down with a marine electric jack. This allows people in wheelchairs to be able to come and position themselves on the bench and subsequently access the interior of the boat." A clip system is currently used to secure the rail so that it is stable during navigation. Olivia would like the person on the bench to be able to lock it directly with a manual system located under the bench and not on the rails.
The descent to the interior of the boat
A platform system on an electric jack keeps the descent in place and facilitates access for both able-bodied and disabled people. " By adding pole dance bars and other handrails on both sides of the descent, access to the interior of the boat is made easier. Once you are down, you can easily transfer to the wheelchair provided. This one was offered to us, it is practical, because a classic wheelchair with the handrails is too wide to be able to circulate in the boat. On the other hand, it is not very comfortable, we are thinking about a new model."
The interior design
A ceiling rail has also been installed to secure the chairs and to allow movement inside the boat with suspended movements, for example, to go from the front cabin to the deck. "We were forced to install this system on the ceiling because we need to have easy access to the wedges. This is especially convenient in the kitchen, we can easily access the countertop to cook with this system."
There are also two cabins accessible at the back of the boat as well as a bathroom where the door has been modified with a sliding system. This winter's refurbishment will provide a total of 9 berths.
At the Bar
In order to allow as many people as possible to steer, a bucket chair system with backrest and velcro will be installed, as is the case on the Cap Handi and HandiAbord sailing boats.
The channels
The team is currently thinking about raising the level of the lifelines to increase the safety of those wishing to go to the front of the boat.
The association Hissons l'Etoile
Today, Estrella Lab is the only 60-foot sailboat with this type of layout, allowing a real innovation in terms of marine accessibility.
Carried by the association Hissons L'Étoile, the vocation of the sailing boat Estralla Lab is to take on board in the best possible conditions those who wish to discover sailing, by trying to take into account the specific needs of each one. Of course, the sailings will be done in collaboration with professional skippers. The association is currently looking for sponsors to be able to carry out this project. A project full of meaning, which will allow to share moments of adventure, navigation and promote inclusion in the 4 corners of the world.
