Captain Coconut Mark Sinclair has set out from Adelaide, Australia bound for Les Sables d’Olonne in France to complete his 2018 Golden Globe Race voyage.

The 63-year-old solo skipper was one of the first people to sign up for the 2018 race and was one of 18 skippers to cross the start line.

But he ended up cruising rather than racing, hugging the coast of South Africa and making nine roundings of the Cape of Good Hope in his 1980 Lello 34, Coconut.

A diminishing water supply and barnacle growth on the hull meant he headed to his home port of Adelaide.

The inside of Captain Coconut’s 1980 Lello 34. Credit: Mark Sinclair/Coconut GGR

Captain Coconut is now resuming his 2018 Golden Globe Race and set out on 5 December 2021 – exactly three years after stopping – to sail to the start of the 2022 race.

Under the 2018 Golden Globe Race Notice of Race he can continue the race in the Chichester Class, and aims to be the 6th finisher of the 2018 race.

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‘I have unfinished business with the Golden Globe Race and several reasons to complete my voyage. I sailed the easy part of the course and want to have a go at the second one,’ explained Captain Coconut.

‘It is an interesting route: one week to Tasmania, another week to New Zealand, before another two months to Cape Horn. All sailors who finished the 2018 Golden Globe Race had been around the world at least once, so this is a great preparation for the 2022 edition, rounding the Horn and bringing the boat back to Les Sables d’Olonne!’ he added.

The Australian skipper started sailing when he was 10. In 1984, he completed two solo crossings of the Tasman Sea and is an RYA Yachtmaster Ocean.

Captain Coconut Mark Sinclair hopes the new antifoul paint will reduce barnacle growth which plagued his 2018 Golden Globe Race. Credit: Mark Sinclair/CoconutGGR

The former Royal Australian Navy commander has also cruised solo the remote areas of Australia on board his S&S 41 Starwave, which was sold to buy Coconut.

He now works as a hydrographic consultant, surveying remote areas in ships, small boats and aircraft.

You could follow Captain Coconut’s’s 13,000nm voyage to Les Sables d’Olonne  on his YB tracking page and his Facebook page.

For more information about the Golden Globe Race 2022 including interviews with some of the skippers go to www.yachtingmonthly.com/goldengloberace

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