Welcome to Autism on the Water. My name is Murray MacDonald and I am 24 years old and have autism and have been sailing the majority of my life growing up in my hometown of Oban and learning to sail within the Oban Sailing Club and now one of the most well known young sailors in Scotland having taken part in many regattas across the east and west coast of Scotland as well as further afield such as Sweden and Ireland.
I am very passionate about autism and I have given much time to share my experiences of autism and have given many talks and presentations about how sailing has helped me become confident as well as making new friends which is something that can be very difficult for people with autism to achieve. Autism on the Water is a project to help raise awareness of the autism spectrum through sailing using Sonar keelboats. I started sailing Sonars as part of my involvement with the Scottish Keelboat Academy and have had free use of club boats from the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club during the 2016 season at various regattas achieving success with a 1st in Class at the Mudhook Regatta and a 2nd in class at the GSS Regatta.
I want to raise as much awareness of autism as I possibly can through sailing at regattas such as the Scottish Series and the Hunter 707 Nationals and hopefully get to the 2017 Sonar World Championships. I need to be very clear that this is NOT a charity but an awareness campaign to promote autism through sailing.
We have people involved with autism for the 707 Nationals, one of which is coming all the way from the USA especially for the event! And we have a special Autism Sailing day at Port Edgar coming up soon for people with autism to come and have a try-a-sail session.
We need to raise funds to cover the costs of our campaign such as covering the costs for the regattas and events we hope to do and run some autistic sailing open days to give others with autism the chance to have a sail. I have been so touched and grateful so far by the individual support and generosity from people and local businesses, for example, Tunnocks ltd based in Glasgow who were the first to donate to my project and also David Sturrock Yachting as well as North Sails who donated a brand new sail for our boat.
Any donation big or small, huge or tiny is much much appreciated and will go towards everything to cover the cost of the project and in return we will happily promote/advertise your business throughout our campaign and also you are not only helping me making this ambitious campaign work but also helping others with autism like me see what sailing can do to help and benefit them in their lives and encourage them to take up the sport.
If you would like any more information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you all so much for your support
Murray :)