Marilyn Eckel

Marilyn loves Sailing Yachts.

Marilyn Eckel was born on a small island in the mouth of the famous River Thames in England, so her passion for the sea was formed at an early age. By her teenage years she was racing dinghies at weekend, and by the age of 23 she bought a 27 foot yacht so she could indulge in weekend sailing along the Kent coastline…

Her role model was Clare Francis who sailed single handed around the world in the 1970’s, and after reading her autobiography Marilyn set herself a goal to do some serious sailing at some time in her life. Every vacation was a sailing vacation and was either bareboat sailing or flotilla sailing in France, Greece or other Mediterranean locations.

For many years Marilyn worked as a Lawyer in Private Practice in England dealing with real estate, personal injury, crime, probate, tax and trust laws, divorce, bankruptcies and civil litigation. In 2001 she was appointed as a Law Lecturer travelling around the major cities of England delivering Continual Professional Development training where lawyers are required to undertake several hours of legal training each year in order to maintain a license to practice law.

Marilyn took a year’s sabbatical in the 8O’s to sail around the world, but after crossing the Atlantic on an 82’ expedition ketch she met her husband in Trinidad and Tobago, and never got to finish that world trip. They returned to live in England, although for the last twenty years she yearned to come back to the Caribbean.

Marilyn retired as a lawyer in 2006 and seeking that lifestyle change moved to St Maarten in the Caribbean. Marilyn loves the island way of life and since joining Select Yachts in 2008 as Charter Marketing Manager she has been able to connect with her passion for the sailing world and marine industry, as well as utilizing aspects of her legal skills in this role. Marilyn attends the Caribbean Boat Shows and enjoys the challenge of the Marketing Manager role. She also manages Crew Placement within the office and gets great satisfaction from placing crew with those captains and owners seeking that perfect crew member.