Sailor Russell Boaden and his two crewmates on the Australian Sonar yacht have had to adapt their normal sailing procedures to avoid potential health hazards.

Due to concerns about the changeable water quality in the South China Sea, off the Qingdao Sailing Centre, Boaden is not at liberty any more to put the sailing ropes in his mouth.

``I can’t do that here with all the concerns with the water…we’ve had to modify the way we go about things,'' Boaden said.

The 38 year-old has no use of his right arm after a motorbike accident in 1994 damaged the nerve in his shoulder.

``And when we changed gloves, taking them off our hands, normally we’d use our teeth. Now we utilise other team members and the support crew here.

``There’s a whole heap of things we’ve gone through, identified and changed.''

In addition to the water quality concerns, the conditions offered in the ocean south-east of Beijing were far different than Boaden and his two crewmates, Colin Harrison and Graeme Martin, had experienced at home in Western Australia.

``We’ve been training down in Fremantle and trying to pick days where there’s a lot of tidal movement and light winds to mimic conditions around the competition zone,'' Boaden said.

``We also moved our yachts from Royal Perth down to Challenge Harbour in Fremantle so we could train on the ocean rather than the river.''

The Sonar is one of three classes sailing at the Beijing Paralympics, which begin on Saturday with the Opening Ceremony in the Bird's Nest.