Ural Federal University’s Team Participated in Inculsive Yacht Regatta
The international inclusive team of UrFU students took part in the inclusive sailing regatta “Sails of the Spirit”, which took place on September 16 in the city of Zarechny. The university was represented by a graduate student from Jordan Aladailah Mutaz Walid Ali, a blind master’s student Alexander Boborykin and a student from the Republic of Indonesia Fatkh Naba Adila. Foreign students study in the direction of Rosatom, which is one of the organizers of the competition.
“When the sailboat turns, the whole crew needs to change board. I am grateful to the guys that they helped me, and we changed from one side to another almost simultaneously,” says Alexander Boborykin.
Each yacht’s crew included people from different social groups and a professional skipper. During the regatta, a concert was held on the shore, in which the Next group, the Phenomen-A dance group, the musician Yegor Vakhnin, and the blind musician Vladislav Trubin took part.
“I have a lot of adrenaline. When we set sail on the reservoir, there were big waves and strong winds. The boat was leaning strongly, and it seemed to me that we were about to capsize. But everything ended well, ”Aladailah Mutaz Walid Ali shares his impressions.
The regatta was attended and demonstrated successful inclusive interaction by people with disabilities, children overcoming addiction (members of the association of the Ural-Siberian region “Ural without drugs”), nuclear industry workers, students and caring citizens.
“Today all the participants of the regatta have become winners. They conquered the bad weather, they conquered the Beloyarskoye reservoir practically in a storm, they became each other’s support and helpers,” notes Oleg Kolpashchikov, the author of the Sails of the Spirit project, the blind president of the White Cane NGO.
About the Sails of Spirit
The Sails of the Spirit project is an international initiative dedicated to the preparation and implementation of a round-the-world trip on a sailing yacht with the participation of people with disabilities, including the blind. Since 2011, an international team has been making preparatory sea voyages in various latitudes – from the Caribbean to the North Sea. Simultaneously with the development of maritime affairs, the sailors carry out humanitarian activities, establishing friendly contacts with people and organizations in the countries participating in the project. Ural Federal University is one of the organizers of the project.
The project is being implemented in preparation for the III International Scientific and Practical Conference “Extrability as a Phenomenon of Inclusive Culture. Formation of an inclusive culture in the digital space ”(Yekaterinburg, 2020) and the international exhibition International InclusiveExpo (Yekaterinburg, 2023).