Pippa Turton (middle) having some fun with some of her Miramar RYA Sailing Training Students.

Pippa Turton is the Chief Instructor of Miramar Sailing Antigua’s RYA Recognized Training Centre and is an RYA Certified Yachtmaster Instructor.  We thought it would be fun to share some of Pippa’s history with our readers.  In Pippa’s words: 

‘My first sail was in a Dinghy in Portsmouth Dockyard – probably a Wayfarer or an Enterprise – with my Father at around 5 years old in a big orange lifejacket, and before I could swim!

Family holidays involved cruising on South Devon and Cornish coasts in a Nicholson chartered from the Navy (Dad was an officer in RN and Fleet Air Arm).

Pippa with one of her many students - exercising good safety practice!

In the early 1970’s we moved to live in Newton Ferrers on the River Yealm in South Devon.  In this sailing community all the kids had dinghies and messing about in boats was what we all did in our free time. As we grew up the dinghies became cruising boats and we went cruising.  Rallies and regattas around the area were regular activities – especially in Classic gaff rigged boats.

I worked for the Island Cruising Club in Salcombe as a Chef/Mate on a few of their traditional boats – Hoshi, Provident and Nancy Bet – we used to cruise from Devon to Brittany regularly.

In 1978 I sailed on Little Milly, a 30-foot Golden Hind (bilge keel) from Plymouth to Antigua.  Dad had set it up with 48 hours’ notice!  It was the end of the UK sailing season and Dad had visions of an unemployed sailor on his hands for the winter.  He was a yacht broker by then and had sold the boat to the new owner who needed crew at the last minute – he volunteered me!

I then worked in Antigua for the season on Harbinger, Barefoot with John and Jenny Bentley in her first charter season, and Fair Sarae, a 100-foot schooner that we sailed up to Boston at the end of the season and did some charters in Boston for a few months.

After that I flew back to the UK (planning to get another transit back to Antigua) where I met and married a Merchant Navy Master.  I spent a few years cruising the high seas on a refrigerated cargo ship before becoming a landlubber in rural Somerset and having a family!  My sailing was curtailed a bit until the kids went to secondary school.  The school had a dinghy sailing programme on a reservoir which I volunteered to help out in and I trained as a dinghy sailing instructor and safety boat driver. 

They also had an association with the Ocean Youth Club – sail training for youngsters from age 13.  I became a mate with the OYC to be able to escort the kids and not take one of the student berths – which an unqualified escort would have done – that started in 1990.  I regularly crewed on the OYC yachts - the most notable trip would be two legs of a ‘Round the World’ voyage on their 70-foot Steel Ketch John Laing on which I sailed as a mate.  We sailed from Perth, Australia to Mauritius and then on to Cape Town, South Africa.

In 2003 I was introduced to Heidi who had bought herself a 28-foot Salty Dog yacht called Sirius and needed a companion to help her learn to sail the boat and be experienced crew.  Her ambition was to get more women sailing. We had all sorts of great ‘girlie’ adventures cruising around in the West Country and across to France from time to time too.  Heidi is now a professional sailor and RYA Cruising Instructor who sometimes teaches for us at Miramar Sailing – she also had a very significant role in the ‘birth’ of Miramar Sailing.

Pippa happy on the helm!

In 2006 my husband Brian arrived in Jolly Harbour and decided to start a charter business.  He had met Heidi in the Canaries on his way sailing to Antigua from the UK.  Heidi was one of the sailing buddies that Brian included in a ‘Round Robin’ email asking for someone to join him in the new business in Antigua (had to be female as he had no plans to share the crew cabin with a bloke!)  Heidi sent me the email, knowing that as I was now separated from my husband and living a fairly mundane life as a retail store manager and would dearly love to be sailing again – especially in Antigua.  I emailed Brian and we corresponded for a few weeks.  Soon afterwards, I flew out to meet him during Antigua Sailing Week.  We got on really well and I came out to stay for good a month later.

We lived on board Miramar for three years doing day sailing charters out of Jolly Harbour.  During this time Brian was Commodore of the Jolly Harbour Yacht Club and I took on the responsibility for the yacht club’s youth sailing programme – dinghy sailing for kids off the North Beach – a project I loved! I was unable to continue to be ‘hands on’ with the dinghy sailing, but I am pleased to have retained a role with Antigua’s National Sailing Academy as a Director.  The NSA is now responsible for the Jolly Harbour Dinghy School and is teaching kids from schools in the area to sail for free.

Brian and I got married in 2010, committed to sailing together forever.  We decided to start the Miramar Sailing School that year and had to become qualified to teach cruising sailors.  I became a RYA Yachtmaster Instructor in 2012 and now spend all my time exploring the Caribbean with students!
I bought my first boat in 2011 – a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 40 for the sailing school – she was named Danae after the first commission my father had as Captain of a naval Leander Class Frigate.  He was very influential in and supportive of my sailing career.  My Danae was bought with the legacy I received after my parents had passed away and it seemed only fitting to acknowledge that in her name!

My first ‘foray’ into racing was in Antigua Sailing Week earlier this year as a stand in skipper for the Girls for Sail boat (whose skipper was taken ill at the last moment).  I didn’t feel that we had achieved as good a result as we should have, but at least we got the trophy for Best Women’s crew – mustn’t grumble!

I have lost track of how many miles I’ve sailed over the years – definitely tens of thousands - but I still love sailing & and being out on the water.  I also really enjoy teaching people to sail, and hopefully to get as much pleasure from ‘messing about in boats’ as I still do!

By Pippa Turton