Copy of Spotlight On: Natasha

This month's Spotlight On: feature is on Natasha.

Natasha first tried sailing when she was nine years old. She loved being on the water, but the adapted boats available weren’t something she could independently control.

Natasha has quadriplegic cerebral palsy and cannot use her hands to sail. So, working with her dad Gary, they found another way.

Gary taught himself coding and developed a sip-and-puff system that allows Natasha to control a boat using her breath. By sipping or puffing into a straw mounted on a helmet, she can steer left or right, while a switch operated with her tongue allows her to change function and control the sails.

It started with a model boat on a boating lake. Then came a full-sized sailing boat. And, eventually, an ocean.

In 2012, Natasha sailed around the Isle of Wight. Two years later, she sailed hundreds of miles from the Isle of Wight to Wales as part of her Sea and Summit challenge.

Then, in 2020, Natasha took on her biggest sailing challenge yet: crossing the Atlantic.

Aged 23, she sailed 2,808 miles aboard the specially adapted catamaran Blown Away, becoming the first person to skipper a boat across the Atlantic using sip-and-puff technology.

As Natasha puts it:

“I am unable to walk across a room, but with sailing I can cross oceans."

But, Natasha’s story isn’t only about her own sailing. She set up the Miss Isle School of Sip and Puff Sailing, helping other disabled people access the same freedom and control she found on the water. The helmet and gloves she used during her Atlantic crossing are now part of the National Maritime Museum’s permanent collection, recognising her place in sailing history.

From a model boat on Ryde boating lake to skippering a yacht across the Atlantic, Natasha has continued to push what adaptive sailing technology can do - and has opened up amazing opportunities for other sailors along the way.

An incredible story. A huge well done to Natasha for everything she has achieved on, and through, the water.

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Achievements come in all shapes and sizes. It could be progress in education or work, a creative project, sporting success, advocacy, volunteering, trying something new, reaching a personal goal or overcoming a challenge. We want to shine a light on the moments that matter, whether they are big, bold and public or quietly significant.

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