ROUND the world sailor Eric Froggatt will be lifting the lid on his epic 11-month Clipper Race voyage at an open-to-all charity talk at Monmouth Rowing Club next week (Friday, March 7).

The co-founder of world-leading Monmouth business Siltbuster, who lives in the town, will be unveiling an inspiring story of perseverance and triumph that saw him complete the 45,600-mile circumnavigation last summer, after taking on the world's toughest seas.

Not only did the long-time Monmouth Rowing Club member finish the epic voyage, his boat Ha Long Bay even won the Clipper Race in dramatic style in Portsmouth, having trailed the 11-boat fleet approaching the midpoint of the race.

He admitted after finishing: "It was hard, but an absolute privilege. My grandad sailed the Atlantic convoys with the Royal Navy and didn’t see his wife, who was being bombed in Malta, for years – it was nothing compared to that!

“I chose to take on the challenge, and while I won’t do it again, it was incredibly rewarding.”

Some of the sailing was "a constant battle, like being in a washing machine, you felt beaten up. The boat’s at 45 degrees, and even going to the loo’s an ordeal!”

And to cap it all, he was thrown by a huge wave and fell some eight foot, breaking his ribs.

“They were the worst seas, 10m high waves, and I had the hardest night I’ve had on a boat, but you hang on, it’ll pass,” he said.

"I pretty much collapsed from the effort when we arrived in Seattle at the end of that stage.”

But the upside was "surfing down waves at over 20 knots... absolutely thrilling", being surrounded by "a pod of sleeping whales" and "seeing an albatross with an eight-foot wing span".

The public talk in aid of the Motor Neurone Disease Association a week on Friday starts at 7.30pm.

Tickets are £10 (£5 club members) on Monmouth Rowing Club’s events page, or on the door, with the clubhouse and bar open from 6.30pm.