Taking to high seas to beat recession

MANY PEOPLE claim to have predicted the recession but not many decided to sell up and leave the country until the worst was over.

Businessman Marcus Seigne said he saw the writing on the wall in 2006 and decided to sell his IT businesses and take to the seas until things calmed down here.

The solo yachtsman spent the past four years sailing around the world and arrived back in Dublin yesterday, having circumnavigated the globe and visited 12 countries. During that time he was hit by lightning and survived numerous storms, mechanical failures and bureaucratic mix-ups.

The 47-year-old solo yachtsman from Wicklow conducted the feat in his boat Fuller Spirit, a 42-foot single mast yacht.

He began the voyage in July, 2006, having sold his businesses and other assets. “I said I’m going to take a year’s break because this whole country has turned to a new religion – money,” he said.

“We all lost our heads and I didn’t like it and the writing was on the wall saying that we were in big trouble.”

After a year, he decided to keep going as he was enjoying sailing around the Mediterranean. He stopped off in Turkey to see a dentist and, three root canal jobs later, he decided to head for Brazil.

“I tossed across the Atlantic and arrived in Brazil for carnival. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Loved Brazil,” he said.

Mr Seigne said he had never intended to spend four years travelling the world but it just happened. “I never meant to go to South America, it was only because the dentist delayed me,” he said. “And I never meant really to go to Australia except a friend down there kept on asking me to come on down.” He started his final leg of the journey home when he left Bluff, New Zealand, in March and has sailed more than 25,000km since then. His only human contact was when the Brazilian navy came to his rescue to help fix his damaged mast.

The bedraggled yacht sailed under Dublin’s East Link Bridge yesterday and will be moored at the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dún Laoghaire. He said it had performed very well, given that it was known as a Mediterranean picnic boat. “It was designed for having picnics on the Mediterranean and it’s not meant to be going down on the southern seas or crossing oceans,” he said.

“The boat’s in a little bit of trouble just at the minute. I had to nurse it for the last 5,000 miles,” he said. “But the trick about this long distance sailing is not about gaining ground. What it’s about is keeping your boat working and in good condition and if you keep your boat safe, your boat will keep you safe.”

He said he hoped he was returning to a more caring Ireland. “I’m hoping now that after the big crash we’ll all start being human again and we’ll all be helping each other and turning into good old Irish folk again, having a pint and helping your neighbour.”

His mother Phyllis was determined not to miss his homecoming but was nursing a fractured ankle in hospital so her daughter Elizabeth unofficially discharged her for the event. “They caught up with me by telephone but I wouldn’t have missed it,” his mother said. “It’s a mental as well as a physical achievement because you are only relying on yourself against the elements.”