after suffering a stroke a couple a years ago and losing the use of my right side i was thinking if i could operrate the remote controls for a sailboat oh yeah i live in honolulu,hawaii can i contact anyone thanx dean
Hi
Found this on the AMYA site (www.modelyacht.org). No contact info given. You might try to contact the regional Director for HI and/or Google the club name formore possible info.
Does anyone know anyone in HI that has a boat that this person could try sailing?
The www.tanglewoodmyc.com has one skipper that sails from an electic wheelchair and is helping another club member to build his 3rd model sailboat. Other members are always willing to help launch his boat. He is able to fit his “Jim-Bob” Footy right on his wheel chair and make it to the pond & back.
He loves the model sailing.
Skippers normally use 2 hands for the controls. Right hand moves left or right on joystick for rudder/steering and Left hand moves other joystick up/down to move sail out/in. It is a simple change to move both rudder & sail controls to one joystick if it is a 4 channel system. This would allow single hand control. Good Luck
Salamoku Model Yacht Club, ,
Kona
HI
96740
US
The following information came from the Google cached version of the old AMYA club listing:
Honolulu MYC, (#123)
Jan Wonso
(808)947-3814
500 University Ave. (#320>
Honoulu HI 96826
Pond Map: Ala Moana Park near Waikiki
Classes Sailed: U S One Meter, ODOM, Soling 50, Santa Barbra, N12, Infinity, Laser, Fairwind
Also, Google yielded a newspaper article listing someone named William Hojnacki as a club member, and said that the club sails every Sunday at the park. All this is old data, but may be a start. Good luck, and don’t forget to post if you have questions 
Cheers,
Earl
I did find a phone # and address for William Hojnacki in HI using my smart phone.
If you need it let me know and I can send it to you as I don’t want to publish it here.
If you do contact Bill, tell him I said hello and ask him to email me with updates or PM me through this site. He used to post here under the name “HOJ” - but hasn’t done so in quite a while.
(He was one of our original Formula48 multihull owners from back in 2001-2002, bought/sailed/then sold F-48 # USA 05 as shown on the AMYA website photo and below)
ADDED: Photo of Bill “rescuing” his Formula48 in Hawaii Not sure if you can identify pond from full photo or not? Good luck
thanks and much mahalos for all the useful info aloha dean
Hi, Welcome into the hobby/sport of RC sailing. From your first post you have indicated that you have little or no use of your right arm. Fear not. We have a member of our club in Scotland who lost the use of his left arm in a bike accident many years ago and with only a slight modification to his standard two stick six channel transmitter, he manages to sail in National IOM events and is usually in the top half of the fleet. Before he started sailing R/C yachts he had NEVER sailed before. After just a few afternoons on the water he was off. Sailing as if he had been at it all his days. This is now his third season on the water.
Good luck and good sailing.
Cheers
Ralph
You can also use a pistol grip transmitter. I used one for six years. I put the rudder on the trigger and the sails on the steering wheel. It sounds backward but it allows you to use your index finger for the rudder and you can reach the sail control with your thumb. I held it in my left hand and held coffee in my right. You have to make sure that you get one with a 50/50 trigger. Some have 70/30 triggers, 70 for throttle and 30 for brakes. I used a Futaba. Oh, and make sure you get one with end point adjustment, it makes set up a lot easier.
Don
Yeah, there are tons of options out there. Might have to build a custom unit…