16-year-old sailing around world plans unassisted nonstop

[bottomscraper]

From ABC News:

Sixteen year old sailor Abby Sunderland was escorted out to sea Saturday by an entourage of boats as she sets sail for a record.

Abby Sunderlund had a look of "resolution" on her face as she sailed out of the marina, determined to take on a voyage that she has been longing for since she was 13, spokesperson Matt Tolnick said .

"Throughout the press conference she was very confident. She knows about the risk. I think the basic message was to not give up on your dreams," Tolnick said. "There were close to a dozen boats escorting her out. The Sheriff's Department and Los Angeles County lifeguard boats were a part of the send off, beeping and sending out water."

Sunderland could become the youngest person to ever complete such a voyage.

The Thousand Oaks teenager, who had been waiting for the local weather to break, will be headed south, rounding Cape Horn and braving the Southern Ocean, which is known for having the roughest seas on the planet. She will have to take everything she needs with her, and she plans to sail unassisted and nonstop.

Full Story Here:
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?secti ... id=7235692

[tartansailor]

It appears that she and the boat are up to the task.
If we were her parents, we would fear 2 legged dangers more than the sea, and for that reason our prayers go out to them.

Dick

[Carl Thunberg]

Geez, you're killing me. My daughter reads this Board. Molly, if you're reading this thread, the answer is "No".

Daddy.

[DaveCD28]

A solo 16 year old, Cape Horn, and the Southern Ocean in an Open 40 design.

Are they sure she understands the risks? Well, I guess she understands them as well as any 16 year old could, which is not much.

I don't think this is going to end well, but luck be with you!

[Warren Kaplan]

And the next one will be 14 years old. No matter how well my kids sailed there is no way that I, as a parent, would allow it! There's more than sailing involved.

If everything goes as planned there's no problem. Its when things don't go as planned is when you need an adult brain on board and even that often isn't enough!

[Jim Davis]

My take is it is more a parent problem than anything else. Her older brother took the record for youngest, only to have it taken by a younger British kid. So now she is "defending" her family honor.

I wish her well, but would like to see a bit more parental restraint in using their kids as surrogates.

[Sea Hunt]

In the February 2010 issue of Sailing magazine, the editor and publisher Bill Schanen has written a very interesting and thought provoking article/"op ed" piece on this subject. He discusses the differences between Sir Edmund Hillary and others climbing Mount Everest, Joshua Slocum and others circumnavigating, and the various attempts to be the "youngest" to circumnavigate solo.

And, NO, I will not be mailing out any copies of this article. If you want to read the article you will just have to buy the magazine.

[Dixon Hemphill]

I agree with Jim Davis, it appears to be something her parents want her to do otherwise they would never allow it to happen. How much experience and training could a 16 year old girl possibly have?

I hate to sound pessimistic but I fear something unfortunate will come of this venture. Let's see what happens and pray for the best.

[DaveCD28]

I went to her website "Abby16.com" and it appears they are using this stunt as a marketing ploy to sell a bunch of shoes and stuff.

I surely hope that making money isn't thier sole motive as it would be a shame to lose a child over such.

Sounds alot like the balloon boy thing from Arizona in the news recently, except that these parents are sending thier kid up in the balloon.

[John Vigor]

Well, it will certainly be interesting to see how she gets on. The boat has been well tested by other racers and proved fast. There is no lack of money involved here, and no lack of equipment and back-up equipment.

I can hardly believe the lightness of this 40-footer. It displaces about the same as my CD27 and the movement in big seas must be vile and thus very exhausting. In fact, exhaustion may be her biggest problem.

I have been re-reading C. A. Marchaj's magnum opus, Seaworthiness, the Forgotten Factor, which investigates the design of the IOR boats in which 15 lives were lost during the 1979 Fastnet Race. And this girl's boat seems to be exactly the light-weight skimming dish that Marchaj deplores so deeply and blames for the Fastnet tragedies. If she capsizes, God forbid, as other like boats have done before her in the Southern Seas, there is almost no chance that this boat will right itself. This is really a boat for trained athletes.

She seems to be receiving outside assistance in the form of weather routing so this not strictly an amateur effort. Her website, as already noted above, is commercial, selling shoes and using her trip for publicity.

I don't know how much parent pressure preceded this trip. And it's hard to know how a 16-year-old could afford a boat like that. But all in all, this is going to be no picnic for this young girl, so I wish her well and hope she gets enough sleep.

Cheers,

John V.

[Klem]

John V,

I agree with you that I was appalled when I first saw the design specs on this type of boat. However, as much as the hull shape goes against conventional wisdom, if sailed properly these boats can actually endure some awful weather. The trick in their design is that they need to be light but if they are too light, they will break. You are correct that they incorporate some features that were to blame in the Fastnet disaster but they employ them differently. Because the boats have the ability to plane, everything is different and one of the biggest dangers is slowing the boat down too much in bad conditions. Recently, an Open 40 was lost in mid Atlantic due to having capsized. The blame for the capsize was placed in large part on sailing the boat incorrectly meaning too slow. These boats actually have a very good righting arm but once they exceed this, they do appear to have a tendency to stay upside down due to the wide beam and flat hull shape until another large wave comes along. I guess what I am trying to say is that they are a very high performance boat and actually do pretty well if they are sailed very actively by skilled people. The danger in this is that there is very little room for error and the consequences of an error can be large.

Personally, I have no interest in that type of sailing. The spectacular gear failures that they regularly endure and their sailing motion do not appeal to me. In order to go fast, they are built to have very little pitch in a seaway which does make them fast but also wet and I think uncomfortable. Then again, I can think of many people who think that the motion of those boats is much more comfortable because of the reduced pitching and heeling even though the boat is jerking all over the place and occassionally pounding badly.

Most of the sailing community has embraced the newer, faster, and roomier production boats and if you look at a forum like Sailnet, Cape Dory's are seen as a poor purchase by many. I would disagree with those people and I own one because I like the feel of this type of boat and they are built well. After all, the most important thing is having fun sailing and I suspect that those of us who chose a Cape Dory have at least as much fun as the Bene owners but have a very different set of priorities.

I hope this didn't stray too much from the topic of letting someone this young sail solo around the world. I am not touching that one, I will leave it to the lawyers. If she has the proper training, I do not see the boat as an obstacle, I think the challenge will be mostly mental.

[DaveCD28]

True they use these boats for racing. But this isn't a story about an experienced racing crew sailing around a couple of buoys over the span of a few days with designated watches, time to rest, and extra hands to help when things get out of hand, and other racing boats relatively close by on the same course to offer assistance when the worst happens. This is the story of a young solo sailor with not too much experience sailing for months in the most treacherous ocean that there is.

It's hard to sail fast when you're in 40 to 50 foot seas in the Southern Ocean. Skim down a grey-beard and plant your bow in the one ahead and it's all over.

Other than adequate sleep so she can think straight, with that large sail plan and planing hull, slowing the boat down so she doesn't pitch-pole will be her biggest challenge when, and I say "when", the Southern Ocean gets angry.

In case someone doesn't know what a grey-beard is....Pete Goss describes them here pretty good:

"...bringing with it what the sailors of old used to call 'Grey Beards'. A swell of such gargantuan proportions that only the Southern Ocean seems able to generate.....These Southern Ocean Grey Beards are impossible to describe for there is nothing that I know of that stands up as a realistic reference. They are the size of houses, hills even but this can never convey the power or living, moving, ever evolving nature of them as they tear their way into the distance without pause. Every now and then they erupt with a force that resonates with a heavy deep throated roar. Once heard it will never leave you for it is the sound of an energy level that will not even sense the presence of a boat. All you can do is steer down the wave, duck, hold on, wait for the thump and hope that you can hold her true and straight for to spin out now means carnage. It's adrenalin charged, dangerous and goes on and on without respite for they had a frequency of 18 seconds and were at least 15metres in height. "

[Dixon Hemphill]

This is the headline of an excellent article written by Bill Scharen, editor of Sailing in the Feb. 2010 issue. All sailors interested in the outcome of Jessica Watson's circumnavigation as well as those other youngsters who are now preparing for this event should be sure to read Scharen's editorial.

[Neil Gordon]

>>The Sheriff's Department and Los Angeles County lifeguard boats were a part of the send off, beeping and sending out water." <<

Maybe they were just trying to arrest her parents.

Where's the age below which the CG declares a voyage manifestly unsafe?

[Warren Kaplan]

>>The Sheriff's Department and Los Angeles County lifeguard boats were a part of the send off, beeping and sending out water." <<

Maybe they were just trying to arrest her parents.

Where's the age below which the CG declares a voyage manifestly unsafe?

Neil,

God forbid (and I mean that emphatically) that anything bad happens to this young girl. Because if it does the finger pointing afterwards will be monumental in scope!!