Jakub Ziemkiewicz tells me he was “born to sail but forced to work.”

He is working as I talk to him - on the yacht he is building in a shed at Aghada in the northeast corner of Cork Harbour - preparing at the age of 50 for the race of his life, as he describes it.

Mini Globe Race competitor, Jakub Ziemkiewicz: 'I was born to sail'

SV Bibi is his entry for the ‘Mini Globe Race,’ the first solo around the world for minis (meaning small), one-design yachts of 19 feet in length. They are called the class of Globe 5.80, self-built by amateurs. Don McIntyre, also the person behind the Golden Globe and Ocean Globe Races, is the mini-race organiser.

A finished Globe 5.80. The design is conceived as an affordable, safe and fun-to-sail Mini One Design Class for amateur sailors and serious adventurers Photo: Class Globe 5.80

The boats have to be strictly designed, with controls on the equipment permitted aboard. There is a 2.2 metres beam, with 1.4 metres headroom. Not a lot of space for the 400 days he expects to be aboard. At least, the race it will have rest breaks in port. It has six legs, starting in November of next year from Portugal.

Mini Globe Race competitor, Jakub Ziemkiewicz studies the building plans for the SV Bibi currently under construction in Aghada in Cork Harbour

Jakub is my Podcast guest this week (listen below) and told me how much his race campaign will cost.