Bonnie Lou Gibson Memorial Sailing for the Blind and Visually Impaired (SVi)

Please read all of the following information BEFORE registering for this event.

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The Sail for the Visually Impaired will be on

Saturday, October 11, 2025. 

Please review the following questions on the registration form before you begin the registration process.

• Every blind or visually impaired participant and every guide must register individually.

• Personal requests or special needs will be accommodated to the greatest extent possible.

• Service dogs are not allowed.  We do not have the means to care for them while you are sailing.

• All guests must be ambulatory and must be able to walk to the dock, climb three steps, and enter a boat.

• For your safety and the safety of our volunteers, guests who are in wheelchairs or use walkers are welcome to stay on the American Legion premise but will not be allowed to board the vessels/sailboats.

• Guides - Please be advised that blind and visually impaired guests take priority in boat occupancy over guides, and you may be asked to give up your seat for a blind or visually impaired guest. 

• Staggering check-in time is to eliminate overcrowding. For everyone's safety, you will be contacted via email with your check in time prior to the event. Event starts at 10am and will have plenty of food and sailing opportunities.

History

The annual Sail for the Blind and Visually Impaired (SVI) has grown to become one of the most important and well attended philanthropic events in Newport Harbor.   Each year many blind or visually impaired guests and their escorts spend a day sailing with volunteers from the American Legion Yacht Club and other area yacht clubs.  There are over 150 volunteers acting as sailing skippers, crew, escorts to and from the docks, meal servers, check-in personnel, marina control, parking assignment, and other positions.

SVI had humble beginnings, starting in 1990, when Bonnie Gibson and Bobbie Reed of the Women's Sailing Association - Orange County (WSA-OC) took 15 blind people sailing on a 40-foot sailboat.  A year later, in 1991, American Legion Yacht Club (ALYC) Commodore J.T. Tarwater established ALYC and Post 291 as the host for SVI.  Commodore Tarwater’s legacy continues today as the ALYC not only continues to host but also manages the organization and leadership of SVI.

ALYC is proud of our legacy as the host of SVI and delighted to lead this event.   

As always, SVI is one of the highlights on our annual calendar.

Waiver of Liability

SVI Participant

In order to be granted boarding privileges to a boat participating in this Sail for the Visually Impaired event, I agree to comply with all the rules and instructions governing this event. I hereby release the American Legion Post 291 and the ALYC, their officers, agents, or committee personnel, and the skipper and owner of vessel, from any and all liability for injury to myself or yacht to the extent that such release does not discharge the insurance carrier under the provisions of the insurance policy on the yacht participating in this event. I assume any risk of injury arising out of my participation in this event, failure or breakage of the yacht sailed on or any of its equipment, or weather conditions.

In the event of any medical emergency, I grant the representatives for this sailing event to take any action deemed necessary to protect ALL participants' health and safety, including but not limited to placing the participant under the care of a doctor or in a hospital, at any place, for medical examination or treatment, at my expense.