Blind sailors take last run before world championship

(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Matthew Chao could not see the sunlight dancing on Boston Harbor today as he worked the tiller on his sailboat, steering the sloop through a gentle but cold breeze.

His 28 years on the water have helped him fine tune that feel for the wind, a skill that he has developed more acutely than other sailors. Chao is completely blind.

The four-member team on the sloop today was from the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton. After three years of practice, they set out today from the behind Boston Harbor Hotel for their last sail before heading to New Zealand for the Blind Sailing World Championship Regatta next week.

The Carroll Center is sending two teams to the regatta, with each crew consisting of two blind sailors and two sighted guides who help with navigation. The sighted guides are not allowed to touch the sails or the tiller.

The blind can excel at sailing when they get "in harmony with the wind and the waves and the boat," said Arthur O'Neill, a vice president at the Carroll Center who started the SailBlind program there in 1979.

"Sailing is an activity that doesn't really require vision, except for safety to see where you are going," O'Neill said. "The actual making the boat go with the wind is all done by feel. It's the feel of the wind, the direction of the wind, the feel of the wind on the sails."