‘Half crazy and very healthy’ – what it takes to sail a mini yacht around the world at 72

Some would call him crazy, but Australian sailor Eric Marsh prefers to think of himself as determined.

At 72, he is the oldest of 15 competitors sailing solo around the world in the smallest boats to ever take on such an epic challenge.

So far, the fleet has completed two of five legs of the inaugural Mini Globe Race – a 24,000 nautical mile adventure on miniature yachts that measure just 5.8 metres in length.

“You have to be half crazy, very healthy and have lots of determination,” Marsh says from Fiji, after a long passage across the Pacific Ocean from Panama on his little yellow boat Sunbear.

“A lot of people have said, ‘you’re mad’ and ‘why do you do it?’ and you tell them it’s a lifelong dream, which it is, but ultimately I think it’s a personal challenge to see if you can do it.”

For Marsh, a retired builder who first started ocean racing in his 40s, getting to the start line wasn’t just about feeling confident in his sailing and navigational abilities. He knew he had to be physically and mentally fit enough to cope with whatever mother nature threw at him for months on end.

He went into the race with no serious health issues and a solid history of keeping himself fit. Back home at Coffs Harbour, he surfs most days, goes on long bike rides and walks, and does regular stretching exercises.

To qualify for the race, competitors had to be experienced ocean racers – Marsh did most of his sailing out of Hobsons Bay Yacht Club in Melbourne – and pass a medical assessment, including a stress test.

“You do have to be careful. One competitor had a bad fall and broke ribs and there’s been a few skin infections, which has brought them down,” Marsh said. “You’ve got to really watch that you don’t knock yourself. Your skin gets soft at my age and it’s very easy to take bark off on these boats.”

On the upside, the solitude at sea has kept him safe from viruses and he reckons the salt air has sorted out any joint soreness. He also hasn’t been seasick, which is something that plagued him in past ocean races.

“We all go through our moments out there at sea. I used to get violently seasick and strangely enough I haven’t been crook at all the whole trip which blows me away,” he says.

“I reckon a lot of it is anxiety and the pre-race pressure when you have crew and other concerns. When you’re on your own, you only have yourself to worry about.”

Marsh first got the idea of doing the Mini Globe Race after stumbling across another sailor on social media who was building a boat for the race.

It turned out Marsh had crossed paths with Dan Turner before as they both competed in the Melbourne to Osaka Yacht Race (Marsh in 2013 and Turner in 2018) and had discussed boats for the race.

“I’m tied up beside his boat right now,” Marsh says from Vuda Marina Fiji, where competitors have made a pitstop before the next long leg across the top of Australian and all the way to Cape Town.

The race started in Antigua on February 23 and the first leg was from there to Panama. The second leg was from Panama to Fiji. The third leg, starting on July 26, is from Fiji to Cape Town. The fourth leg is from Cape Town to Recife. And the fifth and final leg is from Recife back to Antigua.

Marsh bought his boat Sunbear in Florida and had a 1300 nautical mile journey just to get to the start line. It was an awful trip with strong head winds and a rough sea state the whole way – the last thing you want before racing around the world.

“By the time I got to Antigua, I only had two days before the start of the Mini Globe,” Marsh says.

His wife Brenda, a retired nurse, was there waiting for him to arrive and helped him regroup and get ready for the big show.

“I think the third leg is going to be the most challenging part of the race. Getting through the Barrier Reef and across the top of Australia is no mean feat,” Marsh says.

“We’ve had the Trade Winds right across the Pacific, and they’re pretty consistent, but they tend to pick up speed as they hit the Barrier Reef and through the Torres Strait, so that navigation is going to be tricky.

“And of course taking on the Indian Ocean and the storms and gales around Cape Town. It’s a bit like Tasmania and Victoria – every three days you get a different weather system come through and around the cape of South Africa is the same. You’ve got to try and dodge it and get the timing right. Going around there in a 40-foot boat would be challenging, let alone a 19-foot boat.”

So far, Marsh has had two knock-downs (when the mast of the boat hits the water). One was on the trip from Florida to the start line and the second was sailing towards Tahiti when a 50-knot squall hit the boat in the dead of night.

“It sounds like a train has gone through you and you think, ‘My God, am I going to come back up?’,” he says.

“That’s probably the worst that’s happened so far. Some of the sea state is pretty ordinary, crashing into the side of the boat. This last leg particularly, coming around the bottom islands and up towards Fiji, I had a triple reef in the mainsail and a very small reefed headsail.

“The little boats don’t like it sometimes, but overall we’ve been lucky with the weather and hopefully it keeps being kind to us.”

The 15 competitors in the race are from all over the world and include five Australians and two women. The youngest is Jasmine Harrison, 25, from the UK.

Each boat is equipped with sophisticated navigation and communications equipment, which run on solar power, and the sailors have medical supplies and access to TeleMed.

So far, they have spent between 65 and 98 days at sea, and by the time they reach Australia they’ll have passed the half-way mark.

“The boats are averaging 100 to 125 mile a day, which for a 19-foot boat is pretty fast,” Marsh says.

“Upwind they do about 4.7 knots and downwind they’re regularly doing 6.5-7 knots. If you start surfing waves, you can get them up around 13 and 14 knots.

“They fly because they’re a flat bottom surfing hull. I’ve had a few cases where she gets on a wave and takes off. They’re exhilarating.

“They only run asymmetrical sails. We often have two spinnakers up – you might have an A1 on the bowsprit and a A5 or A7 poled out the other side – and they get up and go.

“We’re only allowed to have seven sails on the boat, so you have to choose what you take. I chose to take a spare A3 spinnaker, which is the biggest sail.

“They get a big baggy around the reef points, but the sails should make it round. You get a penalty if you put a new sail on the boat, but you can repair them.”

Once the sailors set off on each leg, they quickly spread far apart in different directions so it’s rare to see another competitor at sea. It’s rare to see anything at all, apart from the expansive ocean and the odd bird, whale or dolphin.

Marsh says he has settled into a steady routine of eating, sleeping and sailing. He generally sails through the night and then turns on the auto-pilot to get a few hours of sleep before day break. Then he’s up again, checking the weather, changing sails and having breakfast. His daily treat is a nip of rum at sunset.

“When I get really tired, I might have an hour’s nap and put it back on the auto-pilot. Sometimes with the sea state the auto-pilot is more favourable than sailing, so I’ll stay on deck and watch it or go have a nap.”

Safe to say, he’s having the time of his life. No regrets. No secretly wishing it was over.

“I’m really loving it. Some of the places we’re visiting are just incredible and the people are wonderful. You wouldn’t get to see these places otherwise,” Marsh says.

“The love of the ocean and the adventure of it all – that’s what this race is all about.”

All up, Marsh estimates that buying the boat and completing the race will cost him somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000.

But with the busy years of working and raising a family behind him, he’s finally turned his attention to achieving a lifelong dream.

“You could spend that much climbing Mount Everest. This is a 12-month event and at the end of it you’ve got a boat,” Marsh says.

“At the end of the race, I plan on bringing Sunbear back to Australia in a container. I hope to get some of these grandchildren sailing. That’s the plan, it would be nice to see them have a sail.”

And Marsh has one final message … “Say hello to all my friends at Hobbos and thanks for their support. I hope to catch up again sometime soon.”

For more information and to follow the race, visit Mini Globe Race – Small Boat. Huge Adventure. After the success of the inaugural event, there are plans to run another one in 2027/28. So far, more than 300 Mini Globe boat kits have been sold worldwide.