The students of Anson Street School, in Orange, make the sport of sailing look deceptively simple.

Their dinghies may be specially designed for people with disabilities, but according to principal Garry Brotherton the weekly sailing trips on Lake Canobolas challenge the students to employ a wide range of problem-solving skills.

“They have to rig the boats up and at the end of the day they pull them down, so it’s all about working as a team,” Mr Brotherton said. “Once they get out on the lake, they’re working out how to move the boat with the wind, [and] where to place the sail and the rudder to get the boat to move through.”

About seven years ago the school, which caters for students with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities, helped the international organisation Sailability establish assisted sailing for local students.

The program was a huge success with the only drawback being the two-hour return trip to Carcoar Lake where classes were held.

So in 2004 the school decided to “go it alone” and purchased two canoes with outriggers, an inflatable rescue boat and four of the specially designed access dinghies to use on nearby Lake Canobolas.

“Essentially, [the dinghies] can’t capsize and they can’t sink … and you don’t have to keep ducking under the boom when you’re tacking,” he said. “They’re tremendous for us – every single child in our school, regardless of their disability, goes sailing.”

Some of the senior students now “sail quite independently” and can navigate buoys placed strategically around the lake.

In 2007 a crew attended their first Combined High Schools regatta, which Mr Brotherton said was “a fantastic achievement”.

“For our kids to have control of the boat, determining where to go on the water, it’s just fantastic for their confidence and self- esteem,” he said.

With the Anson Street fleet readily available and Lake Canobolas only an 11-minute drive away, it was a natural progression for the school to recently include marine studies in the curriculum.

“Every Friday while some of the kids are on the water sailing, others are bird watching and discovering the wetlands habitat with their teachers,” Mr Brotherton said.

The program is strongly supported by parents and community volunteers who lend a hand at the lake each week and by the teachers who have happily jumped onboard – in many cases undertaking extra training to reach instructor level.

Mr Brotherton said the sailing program had presented “a lot of additional opportunities” to the school, and is “almost therapeutic” for teachers and students alike.

“Some of these students are really high support, so the motion of moving through the water and the sound of water on the boat – they just love it. As a school community we worked very hard to get the program to where it is now and to see the children get so much out of sailing is just wonderful,” he said.