Close Encounters…
by John Curnow, Sail-World.com AUS Editor 3 May 22:00 PDT
Jim and Julie Close - JC1 and JC2 - taking on yet another big challenge © John Curnow
Of the Jimbo kind. Jim Close, aka Jimbo, or Mumbles. To know Jim Close is to have an experience (Boom. Boom. Basil Brush). It's not a reflection. It's a casting of vision. Yes. What a trip. Part acid. Part journey through space. Part adventure in existentialism. Jim is nothing if not totally and deeply passionate, especially about projects he is working on.
Also, he's completed devoted to his family and friends, along with great causes, and owns a ferociously inquisitive, intuitive, and problem-solving oriented mind. Look up 'Take it on' in the dictionary, and there's a pic of our man. Known as a Southern Ocean specialist from back in the deep dark days when the Whitbread and Volvo 60s went all the way down, Jim is taking on a very special journey.
Profoundly personal, excruciatingly painful, and decidedly important, Jimbo is now squaring up to the Big C - again. Watching him after this latest round of chemotherapy, which also includes immunotherapy, was like watching him on the helm in the big rollers, being incessantly sprayed with freezing water, and avoiding the Chinese gybe. Spirit, strength, stamina, willpower par excellence, and you knew he just really needed to have a nap. Wasn't going to happen. Not to this star.
Greatest Unsung Hero and Quiet Achiever
It was always going to be sailing. Jim grew up in Melbourne, learning to sail in the family-built Mirror dinghy, then raced Sabots at Royal Brighton Yacht Club. He crossed Bass Strait proper several times with his family on their H28, as well as travelling up and down the East Coast of Australia, and would go on to be the Captain of the Geelong Grammar School Sailing Team.
The academic part of his education was not really for him, and despite being assessed as having an IQ over 180, after completing Year 10, Jim departed school in Year 11. He was offered a fine carpentry apprenticeship for his excellent timber work, or sail making. Pretty clear which one he took, and made a start of it at North Sails in Melbourne. Later in life, Jimbo would be diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, or asparagus as he likes to call it...
Sydney was also part of the mix, including living for two years at the CYCA, and by 18 he was living in England, working at North Sails and on an old timber boat, but already becoming a racer, with Fastnets and so forth on the CV. The maxi ketch, The Card, was the start of the round the world exploits Jimbo is so famous for, and back then it was simply known as 'The Whitbread'. It was the first of five laps Jimbo amassed on monos and multis, along with Admiral's Cups, four America's Cups, Maxi One Design, Sydney Hobart races, and literally, a plethora of events.
There are literally so many races that form the base of the pyramid, on the top of which sit the Round The World and AC cherries. So if there are a plethora of races to recount, then imagine the number of sailors who know and love Jim/Jimbo/Mumbles. Once you have pondered that number, then consider who they are, with names like Knut Frostad, Jules Salter, Harold Cudmore, Laurie Smith, Chris Dickson, Roger Nilson, Dave Scully, Gordon Maguire, Syd Fischer, and Andrew Cape, to name literally just a few...
I am not sure there is an Aussie anywhere with more racing miles (have to be well over 200,000 BTW). There it is. And it did not stop in the Nineties or Noughties, for Jimbo raced two-handed in the 2023 Hobart with Drew Carruthers on the Ker 40, Showdown, where they were second over line. A trimmer, a driver, a sail co-ordinator, Jim always threw himself into it, including rule books.
To underscore all that has been said above, there was a regatta in Brisbane not that long ago, where Jim was not sailing, but showed up to say 'hi' and have a drink. There were at least three that then kowtowed, and one of which has no less than five World Championships to his name. And the mic hits the floor...
It was when Jimbo was training in Auckland with the Tokio campaign for Volvo Ocean Race that possibly Jim's greatest race took place. It's when he met Julie Close, JC2, who some might say is the long-suffering wife of Jim Close. There are people who wonder how she put up with what she put up with, but it's now a love story decades old. Julz was not interested at the time, enjoying being single, but Jim worked his magic on firstly her late Mother, then Julz herself, and well, here we are. "It was a bit of a tough sell for Jim," reflected Julz, before more dates ensued, and then ultimately the realisation, "Oh, I guess this is it then."
Ideas Man
As Julz says "He is a very lateral thinker, and came up with loads of ideas, and lots of different innovations. He was very creative at getting around rules. He was the first one to come up with the Code Zero, and the Spinlock floating jammer."
Now his ideas weren't limited purely to sailing with electricity and lighting (LEDs and solar product designs), as well as power regeneration when cars slowed, all being a part of his life, part of his business, and part of his career before green, 2050 and a whole bunch of other things were even household names.
Then there is the terrific X3 dinghy, which was the first roto-moulded dinghy with foam. This was the 2002 Australian Roto-Moulders Product of the Year Award winner. Like a lot of Jim's ideas, there were many who lined up to say it could not be done. Too difficult, too many little areas for the Polypropylene to get into (coverage), and a foaming agent put in towards the end of the process will never work. Alas, it was the first boat of its type.
Jim wanted to take the family to sea, and the result was the Gentoo scow bow foiling multihull aka The Island, which is still a magnificent concept today. I hope somebody steps up and completes it. One thing is for sure, and that is everything from woodwork to sailmaking, electronics all gets tossed into the melting pot, and you see it coming to fruition in everything that Jim takes on. As Jim says, "The University of Life is a very expensive course, but well worth mastering!"
Then there was also Jim's two-boat Volvo campaign that incorporated an IMAX movie, youth sailing extravaganza in the X3, and a 50m Aussie catamaran ferry to go around with the race and act as a mobile trade show. No campaign had ever looked like it, or has so since.
His mind never stops, and his mouth is not too far behind, hence the nickname, 'Mumbles'. As Julz says, "He's often in many directions at once. You basically have to let it all wash over you, and just go with the flow a lot of the time." Of course, after 33 years, she should know...
Jim's face might not be recognised when venturing beyond certain circles, his name might not be known far and wide outside of the racing community, but the tally on the scoreboard just can't be denied.
It has been my greatest pleasure to know Jim (and Julz, as they are inseparable) for nigh on 30 years. I have been blessed to work with them, for they possess an incredible work ethic, and then sail with Jim (and yes that includes a drink or two, especially in that era), as well as watch them move around the country and start several businesses, as well as seeing their sons, Harry and Riley, grow up.
The gift that keeps on giving
Back in late February of 2024, Jimbo had some reflux, was struggling a little bit, and vomiting occasionally, at which time it was diagnosed as oesophageal cancer. The tumour was overlapping both his oesophagus, and stomach. March saw the first of the eight-week FLOT Chemo cycles (one of the harshest going around and consisting of Fluorouracil (5-FU), Leucovorin, Oxaliplatin, and Taxotere (docetaxel)), and then in late July, 28cm of his oesophagus and part of his stomach were cut out. That September, through to November, another Chemo cycle was undertaken.
The oesophagectomy (lengthy and extensive surgery) involved the removal of the lower oesophageal sphincter and pulling everything up, which means that now Jimbo has to sleep sitting up, for he cannot lie back more than 40 degrees less the stomach acid rises up, and also cannot lie forward with his head in his hands, as his stomach is right up at the top of his rib cage. Yes. This had a long-term impact on his health, and family. Having a huge piece of one of his ribs removed has not helped with the comfort factor, either.
Complications rising from this surgery were a nick to the chyle duct and they had to go in twice within a week, collapsing a lung to drain things, in an attempt to tie it off. It did not work, and eventually a lipoidal dye was inserted to 'seal the pipes', as it were.
Despite it all, and what amounts to 17 CT scans and counting (remembering the nuclear dyes are no fun at all), 2025 was about recovery, and it was looking good, if slow, with no evidence of metastasised disease. There were issues with liver enzymes going awry from August onwards, at which time gallstones were found and the gall bladder was removed in September of 2025. More pain ensued, especially when you consider this was all most likely the result of the chemo.
Still. Can't keep a good man down, and it didn't. In typical fashion, he powered on. As the wonderful Julie Close says, "This also meant that he has had ongoing bile reflux. Because he no longer has a lower oesophageal sphincter stopping the acid flying up from his stomach, he now also has to deal with his liver dumping bile directly into the remnants of his oesophagus/stomach (about the size of a Coke can), and cannot lean forward. It also means no fats, and only small meals, sometimes if at all."
"It's very difficult for him to put on weight, and not much sleep. He's had about one or two hours sleep for a 24-hour period, really, ever since the oesophagectomy. When the surgeon went in in September of 2025, he told us that there was no evidence of a tumour. It was still clear. Same in CT scan of November of 2025. We were very happy, and more cautiously optimistic that this cancer had been beaten. Back when the tumour was removed in July 24, there'd only been one millimetre clear margins because it's an incredibly difficult operation with all the organs on either side."
"The last CT scan was in February, 2026. We got a call from the surgeon on the 3rd of March, and his opening words to me were, 'This is going to be a really difficult conversation to hear.' My heart fell. Then we found out that it was now advanced, and come back as Stage 4 cancer. Originally, it had been Stage 3 cancer and now it is affecting quite a great area of the body. It got through the lymph nodes. They did try and scrape back on some of the lymph nodes at the earlier operation, but it was always the best they could do, and it got away."
Jim was offered the choice to do nothing, or take it on. He has just begun his third round of chemo with immunotherapy this time. There's no guarantee. He's now undergoing a treatment every fortnight for 12 cycles, over 6 months, and then it will be ongoing immunotherapy for up to 2 years following that.
You can help - either or both - and we are not talking JC1 or JC2
Jim and Julz have been very touched by those who have already dug deep in true Jimbo style and assisted via Go Fund Me.
They are both really keen to have a repository of tales from those who were there for this most special of journeys that is Jim's yachting life, and ask if you could write your story, then send it in with any pictures to , where the plan is to then create a book. It is not about how good a writer you are, but all about how much Jimbo made your day, week, month, year, or decade. You know he does have that effect on everyone he meets...
John Curnow
Sail-World.com AUS Editor