While losing the majority of his sight three years ago was a "total shock" to Napier man Dennis Hebberley, he is not one to sit around getting depressed about it.
Just a few months after trying blind sailing for the first time, thanks to disabilities charity Sailability Hawke's Bay Trust, Mr
Hebberley won a regatta in San Francisco, United States..
He sailed with a team of three other crew (another blind, two sighted) and manned the helm, beating eight other teams from around the world at the First California International Blind Sailing Regatta in May.
"Sailing was something I'd never thought about doing before I went blind but Sailability offered me the opportunity to have a go and I did pretty well," he said.
"It's been a godsend to be honest, I'm out there most weekends."
In 2007, Mr Hebberley woke to find his watch battery needed replacing as the numbers looked faded but soon realised something more serious was wrong.
"It just turned off overnight - I couldn't read at work, it had all gone.
"The sight in one eye had reduced to about 10 per cent and the other one faded about 18 months later."
A computer technician, he is still able to work using advanced software and held his job throughout the ordeal of losing his sight. As yet, Mr Hebberley has not had a concise diagnosis as to why his vision failed him.
"They think now it may possibly be an auto-immune disease, the sort of thing which normally attacks your joints but it affects the cone cells in your eyes."
He said the shock news did put him in a "depressive state" at first but, not one to be kept down, Mr Hebberley took matters into his own hands.
"A couple of days after it happened I just got up and mowed the lawns. I had to do it in a different way but I didn't miss any bits.
"It took some time but you figure you can do something or you can't do something, or you have to do something in a different way."
He is still a keen fly fisherman and has nodules attached to his boots to feel rocks, allowing wading into the water.
"It's a different technique - more about feeling when the fish strikes than looking for it."
