At around 13:45 on Monday, 30th June, Jazz Turner, a GB para-athlete and engineer from Seaford, East Sussex, has become the first wheelchair user to sail solo, unassisted, and non-stop around Britain and Ireland while raising money for charity.

The trip hasn’t been easy, with Jaz accidentally running her yacht FEAR aground off Folkestone just the day before she was due to arrive back in Brighton Marina and complete the circumnavigation.

Turner set off on 2nd June, and since starting her voyage, she has surpassed her funding target for Newhaven and Seaford Sailability, increasing it from £30,000 to £50,000.  The charity enables people with disabilities to get onto the water with adapted sailing equipment. Turner’s mission for the charity has been an enormous success, with a total of over £ 46,000 raised at the time of writing.

Jazz Turner undertook her adventure aboard her mermaid-scale-decorated 27ft 1975 Albin Vega yacht, FEAR. Photo: David Martin

Jazz Turner says she wants ‘to help get more people sailing and give them the opportunities I’ve been lucky enough to be granted.’ The money from the fundraiser will purchase two new adapted Hansa dinghies for disabled sailors.

Jazz Turner is a successful sportsperson, having won the Laser 4.7 National Championship and coming second overall in the Skud 18 National Championship in 2022. She was an Andrew Simpson Foundation ambassador and received the RYA Family Volunteer Award in 2022.

Supporters could watch Jazz’s progress via a Project Fear tracker.

Jazz Turner running aground – record stands

According to Turner’s support team member, and Para World Sailing Manager, Hannah Stodel, on Sunday, 19th June, the British skipper ‘ran aground off Folkestone after unintentionally falling asleep.’

FEAR ran aground at around 4am on Sunday 29th June. Photo: Jazz Turner via Instagram

Speaking on Instagram, Jazz Turner explained she slept through alarms ‘while tacking inshore to make progress against the tide.’ She contacted her parents, the support team, and the Dover Coastguard before the emergency Coastguard response team came down to assess the situation with her.

The hull of her 27 ft Albin Vega yacht, aptly named FEAR, inspires Jazz Turner to ‘face everything and rise’ and wasn’t significantly damaged. Therefore, the team decided that she would independently attempt to refloat the boat at high tide. At low tide, she laid out a bow and stern anchor, which she used to pull FEAR off the rocks as the tide rose.

Jazz Turner independently refloated her boat off Folkestone. Photo: Jazz Turner via Instagram

Witnessing the refloat, Stodel said, ‘I watched her crawl (yes crawl) across the rocks with an anchor on her back to set the lines. Absolute force of nature.’

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‘Sailing is the easy part’

Jazz Turner lives with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos, resulting in using a wheelchair on land, seizures, and fainting. She also can’t consume large quantities of food or drink at any one time.

When sailing, she must maintain a good nutrition regimen so that her body receives enough calories. ‘Sailing is the easy part,’ says Turner. ‘Managing my health, nutrition, and well-being is the hard part.’

On her website, Turner delves into the details of the challenging path that led her on this sailing journey. She grew up in an abusive home, leaving to go into foster care when she was 18. Before this, she’d never been to a doctor and assumed that the pain she was living with was normal.

Jazz’s yacht, FEAR, has solar panels and a custom sail package for her journey. Photo: North Sails / Jazz Turner via Instagram

Her foster mum was a GP and diagnosed her with Ehlers-Danlos, which meant that by that point, her body had ‘essentially collapsed’. She explained, ‘It turned out I had had multiple dislocations and had been walking on broken ankles for years.’

After three surgeries, seeing one orthopaedic surgeon with snapped ATFL ligaments and removed ankle bones later, she was forced to become a wheelchair user. Now, after ‘invasive’ treatment to prolong her life, she made the difficult decision to move into palliative care.

Jazz Turner says, ‘This dream, Project Fear, is what has kept me living far beyond my diagnosis.’

A dream come true and raising money

Turner sailed clockwise around the coast, while remaining realistically optimistic about how her disability may affect her. Before setting off she said, ‘If I am forced to stop for health reasons, then I aim to remain unassisted.’

FEAR, with its mermaid design, is where Turner says she finds freedom, thanks to the adaptations that allow her to sail. With her condition, temperature regulation is extremely difficult, so as an ambassador for Henri Lloyd, she tested the best apparel for her needs before her trip.

However, despite preparations, Turner still experienced many physical issues:  ‘My muscles are exhausted from constant sail changes as well as living on a rocking moving platform,’ she explained.

Turner says a key aspect of her motivation is the the need to raise money. ‘Every time I falter and want to give up, I only have to check the fundraiser to remember why I’m doing this,’ she said. You can still donate for Newhaven and Seaford Sailability here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/project-fear

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