Boating News
Innovation allows quadriplegic to skipper his own boat
By Linda Jump
SEBASTIAN -- Keith Clark has no feeling below his neck and can't use his fingers or legs, but he still captains his own boat and scuba dives thanks to the invention of a local man.
"It's wonderful. I feel like a teenager that's finally sneaking out with the car keys. It's freedom," said the 45-year-old Sebastian quadriplegic, who broke his neck and damaged his spinal cord in a 1983 swimming accident.
Doctors told Clark he would never swim, sail or dive again.
Then a few years ago, Clark met Dale Higgins, a retired Sebastian welder who used to work for Disney World. Higgins designed and built an aluminum extendable boom that attaches to the back of Clark's boat, Fun Ticket.
The eight-foot boom, which works off the boat's 12-volt system, can hold up to 400 pounds and circle 360 degrees. It hoists Clark from his wheelchair on the dock onto his 26-foot power Bayliner deck boat. Once on board, he can maneuver into the captain's seat.
"After the accident, all of a sudden I was a piece of luggage that needed help and had limitations," Clark said. "I can't tell you how elated I was to be able to do these things again."
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