Duncan Milne and the Story of ATS

Duncan Milne, founder and executive director of Access to Sailing, is the personification of what ATS is all about. Paralyzed from the waist down by a motorcycle accident, Duncan finds rejuvenation on the ocean. A world-class sailor and racing skipper, he has captained many ATS outings. He is an expert teacher of boating and water safety. In addition, he instructs people who work in water-related jobs how to effectively work with disabled persons.

Duncan's friendly enthusiasm, bold leadership and refusal to be defeated by his paralysis make him a special inspiration to those with similar challenges. His remarkable achievements with Access to Sailing have been regularly featured in the news media.

Duncan has been the recipient of prestigious awards for his community service. In 2002, Duncan received a congressional nomination for the 8th Annual SGMA Heroes Award, which recognizes volunteers involved in sports. He was also a recipient of the National Water Safety Congress Award of Merit for his work promoting water safety through Access to Sailing.

Through all his achievements, Duncan Milne has remained a down-to-earth (-or ocean) guy. He smiles and laughs easily, with a warmth and charm that make him a natural among the many guests he takes on sailing outings. Duncan is especially at home with children, who swarm around him as if he were Santa Claus. Self-deprecating and unassuming, he is happiest when he's at the helm of a sailing ship.

Thanks to Duncan, sailing has become accessible to thousands of disabled persons. But in the beginning, Duncan’s founding of Access to Sailing came as a response to a single person’s need.

"In 1988, I came back to the States after the World Cup competitions in Finland and gave a talk at a yacht club," he says. "After my speech, a woman asked me to visit her 13-year-old son who had broken his neck in an auto accident. When I went to his hospital room, I had good intentions of cheering him up, but he was seriously depressed. In order to get through to him, I found myself blurting out, 'I'm gonna take you sailing."

Duncan was determined to keep his promise to the boy, but he was not completely confident he could take someone with a serious disability out on the water safely. Four months later when the young man left the hospital, Duncan arranged for a sailing outing. "A couple of friends helped lift the boy out of his power chair. He couldn't move, and I literally tied him to a seat so he wouldn't 'face plant' if the boat heeled [tipped].

“When we pulled away from the dock, I couldn't believe the change in him. He grinned the whole trip. I realized something important that day: the act of leaving wheelchairs behind on the dock created a sense of newfound freedom. That's when I came up with the idea for Access to Sailing.

"I called the director of Long Beach Memorial Hospital and invited that facility's recreational, occupational, and physical therapists to participate. They started bringing one or two patients at a time on the boats. Then other hospitals heard about the outings and asked if they could bring their patients, and before long I had my hands full."

Duncan began operating ATS in Newport Beach, California, but encountered his first blockade when he asked for help from the Newport Beach city officials. "The idea of accessible boating was so bizarre back then; they weren't ready for it," he says. So, in 1990 Duncan moved up the coast to Long Beach where he found a supportive community.

“I came here with my hat in my hand. I told the city this was a program with an overwhelming demand, and I needed a place. The city welcomed us.” Since then Duncan says Long Beach has worked with him to make sailing an accessible sport. ATS has grown rapidly to become the largest therapeutic sailing program of its kind in the country. He often books hospital patients a year in advance.

Duncan operates out of a fanatical concern for his passengers' safety and the goal of giving participants a life-changing sailing experience. “People recovering from a spinal-cord injury or a stroke don't want to listen to some guy telling them how wonderful their lives will be, says Duncan. “My job, in the few hours they spend aboard the boat, is to show them how capable they really are, and how vital a positive outlook and belief in one's self is to lifelong happiness and personal fulfillment. They have to see a guy like me up on the rigging, crawling around the boat, and tying the lines; then they realize anything is possible.”

Duncan is a man who knows about possibilities. One of the ironies of his life is that he survived his stint in the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam and Korea as an explosives technician in the 1960s only to get injured as a civilian. "After my discharge,” Duncan says, “I started riding motorcycles and racing with friends on dirt trails east of San Diego. I never operated my bike on the streets. Too dangerous. On my 30th birthday, April 7 1977, got involved in an impromptu race. My buddies and I neglected to check the course. There was a new cliff that had been created by flash flood. I drove over a hill that sent me and my bike airborne at 85 mph. When I landed, the impact broke my left femur and two ribs, collapsed a lung, and injured my spine. My friends always like to say I went over the hill the hard way. It was just one of those things that could happen to anybody at any time."

Duncan left his San Diego hospital bed in a body cast after only 21 days. 'I felt I could rehabilitate better at home because I was only getting one hour a day of therapy," he says. Part owner of a diving shop, Newport Pro Water Sports, he called his business partner and asked him to bring his van with a bean-bag chair in the back. Duncan ordered him to drive to Taco Bell for a burrito.

Soon he was on the water again, inventing new tools and gear to perform the tasks of able-bodied sailors. He reached the peak of his sailing career when he participated on the World Cup team in Helsinki, Finland, in 1988. "We raced 2.4mR boats, similar to those in America's Cup but smaller. I was not the only competitor with a disability. A doctor on the Swedish team had a spinal cord injury. European teams were ahead of the game in integrating people with disabilities into yachting.”

Duncan's racing career didn't end with the World Cup. He formed the U.S. Disabled Veterans Sailing Team in 1994, and in 1997, with the support of the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), he and his crew of five sailors with disabilities took second place in the 50th Newport to Ensenada Yacht Race.

Traveling as a sailor has been a continuation of the lifestyle Duncan grew up with. Duncan’s father was in the military, so his family lived all over the country. Duncan was born in Seattle, Washington and went to Loara High School in Anaheim, California. He joined the Air Force serving one year in Vietnam and six month in South Korea during the USS Pueblo crisis, when North Korea seized a US spy ship.

He went to college directly after leaving the Air Force, and learned sailing in college. “I was getting n AA degree in oceanography in 1971, and we learned dead reckoning (navigation) in rented sailboats on Newport Bay.”

After college he got a job doing water quality testing with a contractor for the EPA. He worked for a year on the coasts of Washington state and Oregon. Later he owned a scuba diving shop in Newport Beach for three years, until the accident that put him in a wheelchair and set him on the course to develop Access to Sailing.


Duncan Milne Biography
Compiled and edited by Peter Martineau 12-3-02
With thanks to these resources: Beach Week 2002 article and Paraplegia News 1997 article.
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Access to Sailing, Inc., a non-profit 501(c)3 tax exempt organization. Established 1990.
mailing address: 6475 East Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach, CA 90803
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