Youngest Lone Sailor Placed In Custody

Posted on 1 September 2009 by Stenberg-Tendys W.L. in sports

Even as 17 year old Mike Perham completed his round the world solo cruise, word was out that 13 year old Laura Dekker was about to challenge his world breaking record.

Perham sailed in an Open 50 foot racing yacht, becoming the youngest person to solo circumnavigate the globe with assistance. Perham took the world record off Thousand Oaks sailor Zac Sunderland, who was also 17 at the time he claimed the record. Sunderland sailed a 36 foot Islander.

Mike’s father, said “Hopefully Mike has inspired many young people to go and live life to the full.”

The attempt by Dekker, to beat Mike Perham to circumnavigate the world alone in her 26 foot yacht, has raised questions in the Dutch parliament, as a storm of controversy rages over the contemplated solo attempt. Holland remains widely divided on the issue, because of Dekker’s age.

Child-protection agency officials went to court in a bid to thwart the ‘risky adventure’. Dekker’s father says he has planned a trip that would not put his daughter at sea for any more than three weeks at a time.

Laura also has New Zealand citizenship and it was rumoured she planned to leave Holland with her father, in order to avoid the veto on her solo voyage. Judges in Utrecht ordered Laura to be placed under state supervision for two months, so as to ensure the around-the-world trip will be cancelled for now. Laura has been permitted to remain living with her father.

Laura is to be evaluated by an independent child psychologist to assess her mental capacity. They fear the mental and physical risks could prove too much. They believe that such long-term isolation would be damaging at this point in time in a young teenager’s development.

Laura’s proposed plans involved sponsorship deals. However, the minister of state for education Marja van Bijsterveldt-Viegenthart, responsible for enforcing the compulsory education Act, said “That without supervision by a competent adult, her self-study at the World School on the Internet, would amount to truancy”.

Laura was born on a yacht off New Zealand and at age six was sailing her own Optimist. Earlier this year she sailed solo to England, where authorities briefly detained her, telling her father to sail her home. Dick Dekker flew to England, but Laura eventually sailed home alone.

There will be a further court ruling in two months time. In the meantime, Australian Jessica Watson, aged 16 and Zac Sunderland’s sister, also 16, both plan to set sail for a nonstop try at the record.

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