Autism on the Water: A new chapter in Para Inclusive Sailing

Now, 20 years after first stepping aboard, Murray is taking on a new challenge: Para Inclusive Sailing, with dreams of international competition and Paralympic reinstatement. In this inspiring personal story, he shares how doubt, exclusion, and determination led him to discover a lifelong community and a future on the world stage.

‘You’re autistic and so we can’t take the risk of taking you to Scottish Series’

‘You don’t look autistic so man up and suffer normally like other people’

These two sentences above were two sentences that people said to me and two sentences that have forever stayed in my head – the feelings are anger, fury and also laughter and complete sarcasm. Why? Because those two sentences are two of the biggest pieces of nonsense that I have ever heard and those four feelings I have – and continue to have – are because those who said those two sentences could never have been more wrong.

We live in a world now where things we said or did back in the 70s, 80s or even as recently as 2007 can be seen as very serious, even to the point of being threatened with legal action. And when it comes to people judging, mocking or criticising those who are different than your average person whether you’re physically disabled or have an intellectual disability or condition such as autism, it truly can have a knockdown effect on that person, so this is where ‘inclusion’ is more important now more than ever.

I am a 32-year-old with autism who has been sailing full-time for over 20 years. I grew up in a small town on the west coast of Scotland and come from a huge family of very skilled and experienced sailors.

Sailing as an autistic youngster and being part of my mother’s journey to obtain a diagnosis for me was not a regular activity other than the odd afternoon out with the Grandparents on their wooden Folk boat or on our family friends’ comfortable motorboat.

It was 2005 when I was introduced to the sport as a regular activity. My late father had purchased a Quarter Tonner for the family to do club racing and local regattas within the Oban Sailing Club.

When I first started, I hated it! I hated the heeling over, the shouting, the closeness of boats at the start lines etc. honestly, I kept asking myself why my family were putting me through utter hell! I would start to enjoy it when the spinnaker was up – and then we would broach! However, within a year or less, the sport soon became such a dangerous obsession of mine that my own schoolteacher asked my parents to encourage me to broaden my interests because all I talked about was sailing!

Now 20 years later, I am the director of a very successful charity, Autism on the Water, which provides free of charge sailing and boating to people with autism across Scotland and the South Coast of England.

The journey to where it is now is so immense that I will not write it all here, but what I have discovered on my own personal journey was when I was trying to get more and more experience. Whether it was a delivery trip or a crew slot at a regatta – even just as movable ballast – the ever-horrible sentence of ‘because you are autistic, we can’t take the risk’ was a regular occurrence I would have to endure.

Even when I first had my own yacht, people within my sailing community were trying to get my entry for my local yachting week regatta refused because they thought with my autism that I was not capable. It is all little experiences like this, no matter how distressing it is, that has pushed me to build what is now Autism on the Water.

We as autistic people or ANYONE with a physical or intellectual condition can do ANYTHING because at the end of the day, we are people, and we should all be included in the world of Inclusion.

My very new journey into the Para Sailing world began when my dear friend Hannah Stodel invited me to attend the Inclusion Development Program in Sardinia to get professional coaching both on and off the water using Hansa boats.

I was a little sceptical at first as to what to expect – would anyone like me? Would it be inclusive enough for me?

The end result was that I gained new skills from some of the best coaches in Europe or perhaps the world, and I finally enjoyed a personal sailing event out with the charity and finally met some brand-new lifelong friends who all come from very similar walks of life to me.

The experience led me to start thinking about my own future in sailing. Whilst I will always dedicate time to my charity, I am now headstrong into building a brand-new career in Para sailing and I finally took the plunge and bought myself an International 2.4mr.

It feels great to finally have my own personal boat that I know will just be right for me. I am very excited to soon become a regular at Para and 2.4mr events across the country as I join with the many others in the Para world to fight and bring sailing back to the Paralympics. It is my dream to compete at world level. It saddens me that our beloved sport has been taken out of these incredibly prestigious games and really shows that there is not enough ‘Inclusion’, and this is where the FANTASTIC work of the team at World Sailing under the incredible leadership of Hannah Stodel is truly remarkable.

Hannah, as a personal friend and also my own hero in the sailing world, is so passionate about inclusivity thanks to her own journey and she is using her passion to bring the sport of Para sailing back into the spotlight where it belongs.

I really hope that my new chapter into Para Sailing will bring a somewhat contribution to ensure that inclusivity is at the forefront of sailing and all other sports in general.