Philippa Nutall & Nick Hutton
Philippa Nuttall & Nick Hutton, Financial Accountant & Professional Sailor
In their late 20s, both are forging successful careers for themselves. Philippa is a financial accountant at top accounting firm Deloitte in Southampton whilst Nick’s career as a professional sailor moved up a significant gear last year when he helped “Oman The Wave, Muscat” win the prestigious 2010 European Extreme 40 Sailing Series. In this series, competitors sail state-of-the-art multihulls on very demanding courses, close to the shore at venues around Europe and South East Asia.
Nick grew up in the village and went to the local school. His father worked for local company Atlantic Spars building masts, introducing Nick to sailing when he was very young. He learned to sail and race with the Royal Dart Yacht Club and, with his father and brother, has raced boats up and down the river since 9 years old.
Philippa’s parents taught at Clifton College in Bristol where she went to school but their main house has long been in Kingswear. They have now retired here. “We met as kids and spent many summers together, playing on Lighthouse beach and jumping into the river from the lighthouse. We’ve been an “item” for 7 years now.”
Nick had pretty clear ideas that his passion for sailing was where his future lay. “At the age of 12, my mum asked me what I wanted to do and I told her then that I was going to get paid to go sailing!” He started racing in the Cadet fleet in Torbay and Exmouth and was soon good enough to go straight into the National Squad, racing at regattas all over the country. “When I was 18, I then started racing on larger yachts. As I got to know people, I was soon invited to race as a paid crew and in time decided to pursue this as a full-time job. My particular speciality then was racing as the ‘bowman’, in charge of the front of the boat. It was a while before I could become a full time professional so in the meantime I took a college course in Leisure Management. I then worked as a sail maker for Hyde Sails – I was working for 5 days and then sailing at weekends. It was pretty hard but as my reputation grew I was then able to survive on my race earnings alone.”
Now 28 years old, Nick is one of a select but small coterie of professional sailors in the UK. “There’s around 200-300 of us sailing at the top level in this country and we all know each other. Often, we work in a mixed team of professional and amateur sailors. As a bowman, I rely on other people to help me look good. I could be the best in the world but if we don’t gel as a team the spinnaker can still end up in the water! So it’s important that we work well with the owner and his friends or family who make up the rest of the crew. Being able to get on with people as well as impart your knowledge are vital skills. A good professional sailor is often relaxed and fairly unflappable but nowadays must have a proper and professional approach to how they conduct themselves on and off the boat. That’s not to say we aren’t competitive as, for us, it’s all about winning. I’m employed to help my crew win not to have fun personally. I’m there to get a return on someone’s investment.”
Nick got into the high profile Extreme series 5 years ago. As the name conveys, these are super fast racing machines providing thrills and spills for crews and spectators alike. By sailing close to shore at race events, they are probably the first fleet to make yacht racing a true spectator sport. Nick is one of the more experienced sailors in this fleet progressing to boat captain for “The Wave, Muscat”. (Muscat is an upmarket resort in Oman.) He previously crewed for Olympic medallist Shirley Robertson and round the world yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur. Nick is in charge of trimming the jib and spinnaker as well as acting as bowman. “I basically run around like crazy for the 20 minutes of each race. It’s gruelling but with just 4 of us controlling these super fast boats during extremely close races, it means teamwork is vital.”
To say the level of at the Extreme Sailing Series is high can only be put into perspective by the achievement of the 32 competitors, who between them have won 6 Olympic medals, 67 World Championships and 137 European Championships, attended 30 Olympic Games and America’s Cups, sailed 21 laps of the world and hold 19 world records for their achievements. Nick and his teammates were the youngest in the fleet and were competing and winning against some of the best sailors in the world. Nick puts their success down to, “pushing that bit harder than the rest. We had more crashes but if you’re not crashing then you’re probably not trying hard enough. As the youngest team in the series, we weren’t expected to do so well.” Oddly, not only were they the youngest crew but also the lightest by 40-50kgs, which Nick says can make a big difference on these boats.
Like all careers, professional sailing is all about carefully planned steps to higher levels of achievement as well as getting a fair share of lucky breaks. For Nick, the ambition is to progress to the highest level i.e. America’s Cup and his sights are firmly set on this goal. It’s a very physical sport so keeping fit is important but inevitably professional sailors like him get a little less athletic as the years progress. “We just change our roles on the boat,” he explains, “moving a bit further away from the wettest bit.”
After training as an accountant, Philippa took a couple of years out with Nick working on Richard Branson’s Necker Island in the Caribbean. Philippa was financial controller for the resort and Nick spent 6 months running their water sports. Even now, if Nick has significant down time from his yacht racing he can pop over to Necker for short working periods. “Necker Island is a magical place and we did have the opportunity to go back. But at some time you have to return to the real world. Deloitte kept my job open for me and I now work in their Southampton office doing financial accounting work for our media and lawyer clients. It’s never boring as there’s always something different to be done. It’s hard work but I enjoy it and the people are great. Admittedly it’s not quite the jet-set lifestyle that Nick has but I’m a home girl and we can’t both be that exciting all the time!”
Although both busy in careers away from Dartmouth, they find themselves willingly pulled back as often as they can make it. “We love the drama of the river and the coast,” says Philippa. “It has so much character and the familiarity is very comforting.” Nick adds, “It’s a kind of hard place to be growing up in when you’re 15 – 17 years old. Not being able to drive, you can feel very stuck here. But only afterwards when you’ve moved away do you realise what an amazing place it is. We both love it here and I am sure we’ll keep coming back for many years. Hopefully one day for good.”
Indeed, Philippa and Nick have recently got engaged and are getting married in Dartmouth on October 29th this year.
“I’ve always known I come second to sailing, but after 7 years you begin to wonder whether it’s ever going to happen! With Nick’s career a bit more settled now though, it’s the perfect time and I’m so excited about it - the planning is great fun.”
Watch out for Philippa’s diary on on planning her wedding by the Dart in future issues of this magazine.