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The Man Who Sailed Around the World in an 18-Foot Boat
August 23, 2026 · 14 min · 172K views · Wells-next-the-Sea
What this video covers
Shane Acton left Cambridge in 1972 aboard Super Shrimpy, a 400-pound, 18-foot 4-inch plywood Caprice Mark I sloop designed by Robert Tucker, and completed a solo circumnavigation of roughly 30,000 miles across three oceans, returning in August 1980 — at the time the smallest yacht to have circled the globe.3:35 His navigation kit was a plastic sextant, a Japanese radio, a Mickey Mouse wristwatch, and a birthday book on celestial navigation; his cruising budget was between 20 and 30 pounds.3:05 The Atlantic crossing came first, westabout, guided by the rule "sail south until the butter melts, then turn right" to find the trade winds.4:31 Swiss photographer Iris Durungs joined at Panama and sailed with him through the Marquesas, the Tuamotu Archipelago, and on to Bali.5:24 Acton pulled his own tooth mid-Atlantic, scraped goose barnacles off the hull mid-Pacific while a jellyfish temporarily paralyzed his left arm, hit a reef and salvaged the boat, and made repeated underwater repairs.5:11 The Indian Ocean's Red Sea leg, beating into contrary winds with a damaged hull, was the hardest.6:34 Shrimpy was towed through the Suez Canal; the Mediterranean followed.6:40 Cambridge turned out 500 people for his return.7:41 Acton published his account in 1981 as a 184-page book; a second voyage produced Shrimpy Sails Again in 1989.8:04 He died of lung cancer in February 2002.10:08 The Caprice class gained lasting appeal directly from his voyage.11:58
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