The FIRST and ONLY

Adaptive Sailing Classroom for PTSD, TBI, SUICIDAL IDEATIONS, DRUG AND ALCOHOL RECOVERY, FOR VETERANS AND ACTIVE DUTY HURTING HEROES™!

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LEARNING TOGETHER AS A TEAM ON A LARGE AND SPACIOUS SAILBOAT. Based in Historic Hampton Roads, We Are Dedicated to Building Skilled Teams with Confidence, Challenge, Adventure, and with Their Greatest Step to Healing…

… Camaraderie!

… Listen to the sound of silence, the wind and slapping of the waves against the hull, and begin to feel Peace. There is very little that can compare to a sailboat on the vast ocean.

Welcome aboard...

To what will be your first step towards re-inventing yourself.

So, stow any thoughts you may have brought with you. Like with any team-building, we'll just proceed at half-speed and spend a little time getting to know our crewmates. You need only provide as much information as you're comfortable with.

Whatever you're dealing with, don't let the world get to you.

Get out... Get busy... If you like it, stay with it. Enjoy the feeling of beginning to heal. With us, the way to recovery is on a sailboat, out in the vastness of creation... the ocean.

Sailing is all about teamwork, responsibility, and follow-through. Day one will be the beginning of a new chapter in your life. When we meet Hurting Heroes, they have no idea what their future holds, or what to expect from our sailing adventure. We recommend you try it in one of our group classes. You may surprise yourself. Today you may have no idea what you will accomplish in your life, until you try.

So, pick yourself up...

One meeting, with a group, could change your life!

Why Adaptive Sailing?

Paralympians use adaptive equipment at national and regional events with recognition. Paralympic Veterans and active duty heroes actually compete with their own personalized adaptive equipment. Adaptive recreational activities are an essential element for recovery.

When a hero becomes a CBAS Org. Team Member, they begin to enjoy fun, great camaraderie, and team-building with confidence, as well as compete with other sailboat teams, and have open-ocean sailing to look forward to.

Research led by Dr. W. Marchand, a Salt Lake City VA psychiatrist, shows that, as quoted, "Sailing is a practice of mindfulness, involving focusing on the present, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations. There is no rule that says treatment can't be fun.”

“They're so calm and relaxed, after sailing…” says Recreation Therapist Heather Fleming, Battle Creek VA Medical Center.

Meet “Cap’n” Leo, a retired US Coast Guard charter boat-licensed captain, USAF Sgt., Vietnam-era Veteran, with 13 years of experience as a non-profit founder and director. He lived aboard and regularly cruised and chartered his 48-ft. sailing yacht many thousands of miles.

Starting from Grenada, through the eastern-half of the Caribbean and the Bahamas, with several round trips through the Bermuda Triangle, to and from Florida.

After a disastrous midlife crisis, he was saved for a new life and became inspired to become the founder and director of the only Caribbean food bank, appropriately re-named in Spanish, Banco de Alimentos de Puerto Rico. The food bank, fueled by Cap'n Leo's given passion to help the poor, is now 39 years old, and growing, as he believed this program would. Information on the food bank can be found at: alimentospr.org/en/historia.

Now based in Hampton Roads, VA, Cap’n Leo has more than 11 years of VA service, 7 of those years in the Hampton VAMC Spinal Cord Injury Ward. Time has come for him to change course and venue, to serve all of our Hurting Heroes, active duty and Veterans, regardless of their injury, by teaching them to sail in a preferable and comfortable spacious group setting–cost free!

Our boat will be available for any certified group study of the positive therapeutic effect of a proud team sailing a large sailboat.

The primary purpose of a large sailboat will be to offer each disabled active-duty and Veteran, regardless of their disability, a fresh opportunity to help them create a new version of their life. They already feel alone and isolated from society after their life-changing injury. Once they get involved in adaptive sports, in this case, sailing a large sailboat, they will realize that they can do a lot more than they thought they could…

We truly believe your ability is greater than your disability.

"Adaptive sports gets the Veteran out of the rut they are in, no matter the nature of their injury. These sports open the doors for the Veterans, who thought their lives were ruined. Once they get into these sports, they realize they can do a lot more than they thought," states Dr. Kenneth Lee, MD COL (RET) Chief of Spinal Cord Injury Division at the Zablocki VA, and Associate Professor of the Dept. of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

With adaptive sailing, they will learn that there's a whole new world beyond the horizon, waiting for their reach.

… Sailing on a boat, with no sight of land, on the ocean, is soothing and will take you far beyond your imagination, and closer to where you want to be–tranquility.

Many of Dr. Lee's patients attest that not only did adaptive sports help them get through rehabilitation, but also saved their lives.

Try something that you might like. Every sport offers an opportunity you might not see. There's no obligation to stay if it does not fit. Check with your recreational therapist for ideas.

If your new sport requires some form of modified equipment, no problem! We are here to assist you in getting your VA prosthetic device and get you active in sailing as quickly and comfortably as possible.

And... Don't quit! No matter what your disability is, keep looking and you'll find that perfect fit for your new lifeguard-inspected sailboat, serving as our floating classroom. Hurting Heroes will learn the basics of boat handling and can earn a Boating Safety certificate. They can then opt for the Senior Crew Advanced Sailing Training class and gain actual sea time to test for a USCG charter boat captain's license.

Cap’n Leo states, “I’ve worked with our heroes in the VA Hospital every day in an environment where I am familiar with myriad post-injury cases of PTSD, TBI, SCl/D, suicidal ideations, alcohol & drug recovery, and all are heroes, some sporting the very latest in prosthetics. For some, their smiling faces hide emotional pain and the thought of a destroyed life. Yet, after a sports outing, you can feel and see their energy... They do so love and look forward to their sports.”

There are nearly 200,000 Veterans living in the Hampton Roads region, making this a metropolitan area with the highest concentration of Veterans in the United States (Google Gemini, 2025).

In 2022, 24.3% of all Veterans in Virginia had a disability, according to data compiled by USAFacts. Applying this percentage today to the Hampton Roads Veteran population would suggest that tens of thousands of Hurting Heroes live in this region.

Chesapeake Bay Adaptive Sailing Org. 501(c)(3) NGO-non-profit corp.* plans to operate a large Coast Guard-inspected sailboat, serving as our floating classroom.