Jazz Turner: Face everything and rise

Having been given just months to live, Jazz Turner sailed a solo circumnavigation around Britain. The achievement earned her consideration for the Rolex World Sailor of the Year, with Helen Fretter catching up with the finalist for Yachting World:

On June 29, a lifeboat crew was attending a multicolored little yacht that had run hard aground off Folkestone, on the south-east corner of England, in the early hours of the morning.

The yacht was a 27ft Albin Vega, sitting high and dry on the rocks, and its skipper a petite young sailor called Jazz Turner, who was in the closing stages of a solo circumnavigation of Britain – and also happens to use a wheelchair to get about on land.

At first glance, Turner and the Albin’s situation looked hopeless: the yacht would surely require towing off, the single-handed skipper would surely require assistance. But the rescue crews were asked not to intervene. Jazz and her team had a plan, and she was going to get herself and her yacht out of this predicament on her own. – Full report