Mark ‘Captain Coconut’ Sinclair finally finishes 2018 Golden Globe yacht race

He may just have set a new world record by finally finishing a yacht race after a really long pitstop in his own home town.

Adelaide yachtie Mark “Captain Coconut” Sinclair has arrived in France and completed Golden Globe around the world sailing race – four years after he started and three years after the rest of the field.

The father of three and former navy captain, speaking from the French port of Les Sables d’Olonne, admits that it might be one of the slowest times of any race in the history of yachting, but he’s already planning to do it again.

Mr Sinclair entered the Golden Globe anniversary race in 2018, embarking on a solo circumnavigation of the globe in his yacht Coconut.

Under the rules of the race competitors had to use analog navigation equipment, eschewing GPS systems and electronics and using sextants and chronographs to determine their position.

“In the 1960s a guy called Sir Francis Chichester sailed around the world in the Gypsy Moth and stopped just once,” Mr Sinclair said. “That was an amazing feat, and he followed the clipper route of the big square riggers.

Adelaide sailor Mark Sinclair in the French port of Les Sables d’Olonne. Picture: B.Gergaud

“That led to people wondering if people could sail around the world without stopping. So the Sunday Times put together a race, and only one person completed it ­­– Sir Robin Knox-Johnson in 1968-69.

“That was the original Golden Globe race. Fast forward 50 years and 2018 was the 50th anniversary. So an Adelaide guy – Don McIntyre, who’s done a lot of adventuring through his life – decided to do a re-enactment.

“There was so much interest that he had to drop out of the race himself to run it. Of the 18 people who started only five – plus myself now – finished.”

While the aim of the race is to sail around the globe without stopping, there is a clause that allows competitors to stop once and then continue in the Chichester category.

So when Mr Sinclair found himself running out of freshwater and struggling to keep the Coconut free from barnacles he decided to call in to his hometown of Adelaide for some repairs. And stayed for three years.

Mark Sinclair with his “Wilson” companion. Picture: JL Lhomond

“Then, because there’s no time limit on the race, I just decided to finish it,” he laughed.

“I was 157 days out at the point I came in to Adelaide on December 5, 2018. I sailed down the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, under Africa, under Australia, stopped in Adelaide for a while, then went under New Zealand, under South America and then up to France. It was about 30,000 nautical miles. A total of 332 days at sea and 1422 days in total.”

Mr Sinclair said hitting four successive storms going around Cape Horn was probably the toughest part of his epic journey.

The interior of Coconut, Mark Sinclair’s yacht. Picture: JL Lhomond

“The waves channel between Antarctica and the bottom of South America, and it can be a nasty area,” he said.

“I got a bit of a hiding – I went around at night only two-and-a-half miles off the coast in a force 10 gale.

“There was water coming in below, I got a cut face, the self-steerer was broken. It was pretty hairy.” And while he admits there’s danger in open ocean sailing, especially without modern equipment, Mr Sinclair said life’s too short not to take on challenges.

“I was 20 years at school, 20 years in the navy and in 20 years from now I’ll be dead,” he said. “That’s real. There’s an urgency to live.”

Mr Sinclair is now repairing damage to Coconut sustained coming across the North Atlantic before hopefully joining the next Golden Globe race which starts on September 4.