Coffs sailor Eric Marsh feared for his life after being washed overboard

COFFS Harbour sailor Eric Marsh feared for his life when he was washed overboard by a freak wave during the McIntyre Mini Globe Race (MGR).

One of 15 solo sailors competing in the 28,000-mile round-the-world race, Mr Marsh was thrown off Sunbear, his Globe 5.80 boat, in the middle of the night on 17 October.

“I thought my life was over,” he told a race interviewer, “It was a pretty scary ordeal, I’m still shaking.”

His wife and Safety Manager Brenda Marsh, told News Of The Area that her husband was swept from the foredeck while putting his spinnaker pole away.

He was tethered onto the safety rail but was dragged and became entangled in the spinnaker lines.

In attempting to climb up the side of the boat his lifejacket auto inflated, which caused further difficulties.

“After several attempts, very tired and exhausted, he managed to get back onto the boat,” Brenda said.

He achieved this by dragging himself to the port quarter.

“I burned up all my energy,” Eric said.

Wet and still very shaken, he described the incident as “the scariest time of my life.”

The current leg of the race is from Vuda Marina Fiji to Cape Town in South Africa.

At the time, Eric was about 70 miles from finishing and in the middle of rain squalls.

The forecast showed 20-25 knot easterly winds and a 2-3 metre sea.

A full debrief is being undertaken to discover exactly what happened and how his self-recovery was carried out successfully.

The lessons learned will be shared with all MGR competitors.

Eric has sailed approximately 16,000 miles onboard Sunbear since setting out from America to make the start of the MGR from the National Sailing Academy in Antigua.

He is now safely in Port Louis, Mauritius.

By Andrea FERRARI