A NOVICE sailor is planning to take on the choppy waters of the Indian Ocean as he sails from South Africa to Australia in a major race.

Mark Neilson, 48, a boxing promoter and the owner of a Swindon recruitment company, will be taking part in the third leg of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, which is expected to take 24 days.

Mark said: “At the beginning, I had the idea of getting some sailing qualifications, hiring a boat and taking my wife and family around some Greek islands.”

After a week and a half’s training Mark then stumbled across an advert for the Clipper race on social media.

Hooked on the idea, within 48 hours he had registered and signed up to speak to participants at an open day in London.

Things snowballed from there, he said: “I signed up, then I had to go through an interview process and an induction process.

“You sign up for it, then every crew member, regardless of previous experience, has to do four weeks training on a clipper yacht.

“If you’re not in reasonable condition, you’re not going to be able to do it: some have already dropped out.

“It culminates with a final level of training where you are racing across the coast of France on these yachts.”

The race started in August from Liverpool, and will return there next July. Novice sailors sign up to take part in different legs of the journey, and Mark says that he has let himself in for a challenge.

He said: “I’ve signed up for leg three, which is South Africa to Western Australia. They call it the ‘southern sleigh ride’, it’s the really hairy and exhilarating one.

"You are racing 24-hours-a-day, four hours on then four hours off. If I wanted a challenge, I’ve certainly given myself one."

During his time aboard the yacht Nasdaq, Mark will be with 20 other crew members, and they are all aware of the dangers: in the last race in 2015, there were two fatalities, the first in the competition’s history.

Despite this, Mark says his wife Emma and three children, who will be flying out to Cape Town to wave him off on October 31, are right behind him.

“She likes it that I want to do stuff, that I want to be active and challenge myself,” he said.