Calling Great Southern sailors to join crew

Sailing legend Jamie Dunross has set his sights on another Paralympic gold medal and is putting the call out for a crew from the Great Southern to join him.

Dunross, with fellow sailors Noel Robins and Graeme Martin, won gold at the Sydney 2000 Summer Paralympic Games in the Mixed Three Person Sonar event.

Dunross hopes to find two crew members to join him in his quest to attend the 15th Summer Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

“Paralympic sailing comes under the Australian sailing team and at the moment Australia is struggling to put teams together for the Paralympics,” he said.

“There’s no one team in one location and people have to be flown together to train.

“If I can find the right combination in an area where we can train together towards winning a gold medal for the country, that makes it a doable thing.”

The Sonar (a class of yacht) three-person sailing event requires crew members based on a point system.

“Each person has a score of up to seven points, with seven being the least disabled and one being the most disabled,” Dunross said.

“I’m a one … that means I can carry a couple of really strong people on the boat, say a seven which might be a leg amputee and a six which I think is the loss of a hand.”

He said no sailing experience was necessary.

“Someone with a bit of gold fever would be ideal,” Dunross said.

“I can teach them how to sail, that’s easy.

“They need a love of the water, a commitment to training and a desire to represent Australia.”

He said it would not matter whether his crew was male or female or whether they were from Albany, Denmark, Mt Barker or Walpole.

“In regional areas there are people who may have had an accident with farm machinery and they may not think it, but they could be the perfect person to become an elite athlete,” Dunross said.

He said Albany was an ideal place to train as the cool climate created “tougher” sailors.

“It makes elite sailors of you — you want to be challenged in these tougher conditions so when you compete it feels easier,” Dunross said.

“We can achieve anything if we can find the right people.”

Anyone interested in joining Dunross’ crew can contact him on 0439 529 520.