acton was born and raised in coleridge, cambridge, england. without any sailing experience, he departed in a used 18' 4" bilge-keel sailing boat for which he paid the modest sum of £400. the boat was a caprice, a robert tucker design originally named "super shrimp" but referred to by shane simply as "shrimpy". later shane was accompanied for much of the voyage by his girlfriend, iris derungs, a photographer from switzerland. he sailed westabout through the panama canal, circling the globe and returning to england as a local celebrity eight years later. the voyage is chronicled in his book "shrimpy: a record round-the-world voyage in an eighteen foot yacht".