Annabel James was a secondary school maths teacher for 25 years before deciding to take a career break in September 2021, just before her 50th birthday. Having volunteered as a Dinghy Instructor for 15 years, she wanted to upskill. As it turns out, she has done a huge amount of upskilling this year!
Beginning with a Senior Instructor course, which she loved, Annabel realised how much she enjoyed being an SI at Exe Sailing Club (ESC). She took the opportunity to do a Sea Survival course with an ESC team at SeaRegs in Plymouth, after which she was asked to join the club’s Girls Go Sailing (GGS) committee, which runs a hugely successful women’s sailing group: “I race dinghies and I wanted to be working alongside really good female sailors, having also bought a yacht during lockdown,” she explains.
Within GGS, she recently ran a PB2 refresher course and a dinghy and Hawk cruise from the club with a total of 13 female sailors on the water, offering guidance on helming where needed.
Next came a Powerboat Instructor course, which resulted in an immediate offer of freelance work at the training centre, and then a Day Skipper qualification: “I wanted to be able to sail my yacht singlehanded, and I’m about to do the Scottish Island Peaks Race, a three to four-day adventure race for teams of three sailors and two fell runners.”
So in just a few short months, Annabel has changed her life, and put sailing right in the centre of it. “It’s all a bit crazy,” she laughs, “but my children are growing up and it’s time to do something for me. Sailing is a sport that you can do at any age; I’ve seen a bit more of life now and at my age I want to get on and make the most of it. And I want to inspire others to do the same.”
