Setting Sail with Access-IS and the Jubilee Sailing Trust

The Jubilee Sailing Trust (JST), based in Southampton, United Kingdom, is a sail training charity. Founded in 1978 its aim is to integrate both able-bodied and disabled persons through Tall Ship sailing. The JST gets everyone on board involved in sailing the ships to the extent of their abilities, focusing on what people can do, instead of what they can't.

Each year the JST takes around 2,000 adults to sea with each ship sailing with up to 40 voyage crew, eight or nine permanent crew and three or more volunteer crew. The ships sail around the United Kingdom, Western Europe, the Canary Islands and the Caribbean.

Access-IS readers were first introduced by the JST in 2014 to try and speed up the onboarding of up to 40 new crew for each voyage. Taking details submitted during the booking process and confirming that they are correct for onward transmission to immigration authorities etc at ports of call is an essential job.

Using Access-IS readers to instantly capture personal data from a single swipe of an ID document the JST’s visual basic coded Excel system is automatically populated. Previously, this process had involved manually reading and comparing the information from each passport against the details held in registration spreadsheets. The latest OCR316e is being used to help move this process to the next level with a bespoke MS Access based system that gives the trust more information and control than ever before.

Both of these advances have allowed the JST to save time while improving the accuracy of the "onboarding" process. The consequence of this is that more of the trusts efforts can be spent doing what they are supposed to rather than on administration.

STS Lord Nelson and SV Tenacious are pioneers in the world of tall ships. They are the only two vessels which have been designed and purpose-built to allow people of all physical abilities to sail side-by-side on equal terms. There are 8 wheelchair cabins with two bunks each, with the remaining accommodation being 'dorm-style'. Both vessels are equipped with additional measures to allow for disabled people to sail, including: a speaking compass, visual and tactile alarms around the ship to supplement emergency announcements, acessible toilets, signage and diagrams in Braille, power-assisted steering for the ship's wheel, wheelchair lifts around the ship, wider passageways, and tactile markers to assist the visually impaired in finding their way around.

In fact, SV Tenacious is just about to return from the Southern Hemisphere after some 2 and a half years based in Australia bringing the joys of seafaring to a hundreds of new people who have learnt about themselves and the world around them to help take guide them through the rest of their lives. 

About Jubilee Sailing Trust

The JST takes both disabled and able-bodied men and women to sea, to not only teach them how to crew a tall ship, but to promote equality, sharing, and to celebrate our individual differences by working together to achieve greater things.

 Since the JST was established in 1978 over 45,000 people have sailed with us. Of these approximately 17,000 people were disabled and 5,750 wheelchair users.

http://www.jst.org.uk