IT is the boat which could give hundreds of disabled youngsters the chance to experience the thrills of power boating.

Hampshire charity Wetwheels Solent, headed by quadriplegic sailor Geoff Holt MBE, is launching its appeal to fund a new boat, to be based in Hamble.

The Daily Echo is backing the Wetwheels Hamble Project and is calling on businesses and people across Hampshire to help them raise £65,000 for a new boat, which will be based in the town at the Prince Phillip Yacht haven at the Royal Southern Yacht Club.

Bosses at Wetwheels Solent hope the boat will take at least 800 disabled people out onto the water each year.

Geoff said the boat will help give hundreds of youngsters of all disabilities a taste of the adrenaline rush from power boating.

He said: “We regularly take out 1,200 people a year on Wetwheels Solent, and we believe quite fervently that with a Wetwheels boat based here on the river Hamble for local communities up and down the river in Bursledon, Warsash, Locks Heath plus around all of Southampton Water, Woolston and over to Hythe, we will easily get an extra 800 people people a year out on the water.

“Wetwheels is a purpose-built power boat. She has two 600 horsepower engines on the back and she can do 35 to 40 knots. Everyone who comes on the boat, no matter what disability or age, gets an opportunity to drive it.”

To start the campaign, teenagers from Hamble Community Sports College took to the water, along with a group from Vitalise based in Netley.

Also at the launch was ambassador for Wetwheels Solent, former world power boating champion Shelley Jory-Leigh.

She said: “I have been an ambassador of Wetwheels for about five years, and for me it is probably the best charity ever, because it brings in my world of powerboat racing which I love and I am so passionate about, and I can just extend it to everybody.”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re in a wheelchair, whether you’re blind, any disability that you have we can get you out in a powerboat.”

To find out more or donate, visit campaign.justgiving.com/charity/wetwheelsfoundation/hamble, or visit wetwheels.co.uk.