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Youngest Around the World Sailor


WWVaBeach

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im not trying to disparage her skills in any way. she's a more qualified sailor than i could ever be. still doesnt mean it's a good idea to send a 16 year old around the world in a boat on their own. unless everyone is fine with her dying. and based on the father's comments, it sounds like they were. to each their own, im fine with that. it's just strange to see parents being ok with sending their child to their death.

 

being ok with her death, and believing she can do it are two very different things.

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being ok with her death, and believing she can do it are two very different things.

 

 

Believing she can do it and allowing her to subject herself to significant risk of death to prove it are also two very different things.

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being ok with her death, and believing she can do it are two very different things.

 

not really. they "believe" she can do it. wonderful. but its not guaranteed.

 

and the parents knew that. you "believe", you "hope", but you also have to know that the chances of her making it arent that good. luckily, she only had her mast broken clean off her sailboat this time.

 

im all for letting kids leave the nest, and letting them be their own, independent person. but at some point a parent has to look out for the welfare of their CHILD who might not have the best ideas. i understand where her parents are coming from, and dont want to directly condemn them. but IMO, it's a dumb idea.

 

here's a question: has this girl ever even sailed around the world with a full crew? or is this her absolute first time on this route?

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“Sailing and life in general is dangerous. Teenagers drive cars. Does that mean teenagers shouldn’t drive a car?” Laurence Sunderland told the AP. “I think people who hold that opinion have lost their zeal for life. They’re living in a cotton-wool tunnel to make everything safe.”

 

Stupid argument. What teen driver has to wait a couple of days for someone to rescue them. And a good driver is unlikely to get in a crash, while a good sailor is still at the mercy of the ocean and storms that can capsize and sink their boat.

 

She's been on the ocean since January. What happened to going to school?

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“Sailing and life in general is dangerous. Teenagers drive cars. Does that mean teenagers shouldn’t drive a car?” Laurence Sunderland told the AP. “I think people who hold that opinion have lost their zeal for life. They’re living in a cotton-wool tunnel to make everything safe.”

 

Stupid argument. What teen driver has to wait a couple of days for someone to rescue them. And a good driver is unlikely to get in a crash, while a good sailor is still at the mercy of the ocean and storms that can capsize and sink their boat.

 

She's been on the ocean since January. What happened to going to school?

 

January is Summer down there. Summer break maybe? I dont really know.

 

again, it's Australia. How much is education really valued? :)

 

i can respect the whole "zeal for life", carpe diem thing, because I agree that people dont have that mind set nearly as much as they used to. still think letting a person (doesnt matter female or male) that young, try this all by themselves is a bad idea. but they are their kids, and they are paying for the rescue and eating the $90,000 loss on the boat, so whatever. guess the world needs go-getters.

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January is Summer down there. Summer break maybe? I dont really know.

 

again, it's Australia. How much is education really valued? :)

She's from Cali.....

 

A 16-year-old California girl who is awaiting rescue in the Indian Ocean aboard her storm-damaged yacht will likely give up on her dream of sailing solo around the world, a family spokesman said Friday.

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This is one of the many reaasons for the pussification of America. I suppose we should protect and shield every kid from all possible dangers till they're "adults". When exactly is that? The magical age of 18, when it's a well known fact that all kids are suddenly endowed with good sense and maturity? God forbid a teen ager actually want to do something other than play video games and text all day.

 

I commend her for the effort and wish more parents would enable their kids to act independently and follow their dreams. This overly protective, parents are bad unless they watch over their kids 24/7 and shield them from the world attitude is disheartening to say the least.

 

With all the GPS tracking devices, emergency beacons, satellite phones, and online blogging, I'm not even sure how you can consider this a solo voyage. They lost contact with her for 20 hours, of course, they still knew exactly where she was.. they just couldn't talk to her for nearly a whole day.

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This is one of the many reaasons for the pussification of America. I suppose we should protect and shield every kid from all possible dangers till they're "adults". When exactly is that? The magical age of 18, when it's a well known fact that all kids are suddenly endowed with good sense and maturity? God forbid a teen ager actually want to do something other than play video games and text all day.

 

I commend her for the effort and wish more parents would enable their kids to act independently and follow their dreams. This overly protective, parents are bad unless they watch over their kids 24/7 and shield them from the world attitude is disheartening to say the least.

 

With all the GPS tracking devices, emergency beacons, satellite phones, and online blogging, I'm not even sure how you can consider this a solo voyage. They lost contact with her for 20 hours, of course, they still knew exactly where she was.. they just couldn't talk to her for nearly a whole day.

 

Yeah, cause I'm sure, back in the good old days when America wasn't "pussified", all the high school kids were trying to sail around the world by themselves. Stupid modern age, where most children aren't allowed to sail around the world.

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Yeah, cause I'm sure, back in the good old days when America wasn't "pussified", all the high school kids were trying to sail around the world by themselves. Stupid modern age, where most children aren't allowed to sail around the world.

 

Yeah, they just sat at home and never went over into the next valley.

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Yeah, cause I'm sure, back in the good old days when America wasn't "pussified", all the high school kids were trying to sail around the world by themselves. Stupid modern age, where most children aren't allowed to sail around the world.

 

Not only did they all sail around the world, but they did it barefoot while traveling directly into the wind the whole way, with a fishing net for a sail.

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Yeah, cause I'm sure, back in the good old days when America wasn't "pussified", all the high school kids were trying to sail around the world by themselves. Stupid modern age, where most children aren't allowed to sail around the world.

They at least had more aspirations than beating level 35 on the newest video game or buying new shoes.

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we need to stop measuring 'youngest this' and 'youngest that'....these kids are way too young to be doing these death defying 'stunts'...that kid that just climbed everest...he had to go up the chinese side because the tibetian side does have an age limit....16 years old is too young to die at sea for a silly stunt.....

 

imho

The was completely trained and tested to make sure she was ready. All of the training in the world won't hold up against those types of waves. I applaud her effort. Too bad this country doesn't have more people like this!

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Yeah, cause I'm sure, back in the good old days when America wasn't "pussified", all the high school kids were trying to sail around the world by themselves. Stupid modern age, where most children aren't allowed to sail around the world.

My disdain is for the public outcry at how parents could so recklessly let their child do this. As though all people grow and mature at the same rate. Just because she's 16 does not in any way mean she's incapable or that her parents are endangering her life. Just because you (in a broader sense, not you in particular) chose to shelter your child and protect them from evey possible failure in life doesn't mean everyone should.

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God forbid a teen ager actually want to do something other than play video games and text all day.

As you sit behind a monitor talking out your ass... <_<

 

There's a big diffence between not having your kid be an X-Box thumb jockey and allowing them to take sucicidal risks when they're not physically/mentally mature or experienced enough to handle dangerous conditions.

 

Teanagers drive cars, but they don't race in the Indy 500...

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Stupid argument. What teen driver has to wait a couple of days for someone to rescue them. And a good driver is unlikely to get in a crash, while a good sailor is still at the mercy of the ocean and storms that can capsize and sink their boat.

<_<

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As you sit behind a monitor talking out your ass... <_<

 

There's a big diffence between not having your kid be an X-Box thumb jockey and allowing them to take sucicidal risks when they're not physically/mentally mature or experienced enough to handle dangerous conditions.

 

Teanagers drive cars, but they don't race in the Indy 500...

Yes that's me... an ass talker. You assume quite a bit.

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My disdain is for the public outcry at how parents could so recklessly let their child do this. As though all people grow and mature at the same rate. Just because she's 16 does not in any way mean she's incapable or that her parents are endangering her life. Just because you (in a broader sense, not you in particular) chose to shelter your child and protect them from evey possible failure in life doesn't mean everyone should.

I read about the training she had- she was ready for this. If not, she would have probably screwed up when the wave hit and would have been dead. Better than the non-parents who let their kids play more than 1 hour of video games per day

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I read about the training she had- she was ready for this. If not, she would have probably screwed up when the wave hit and would have been dead. Better than the non-parents who let their kids play more than 1 hour of video games per day

Exactly. It was that training and experience (something everyone wants to assume she didn't have because she's just a wittle baby) that kept her alive when she encountered the storm and lost the mast.

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