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The Spectacle Blog
Yesterday, 16-year old Laura Dekker became the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe by sailboat when she completed her solo journey which she began a year ago.
Dekker had wanted to set sail in 2009 when she was 14 but Dutch authorities prevented her by seeking and obtaining joint custody of her with her father who has supported her ambitions from the outset. She was born on a boat in New Zealand and has spent most of her life at sea. Eventually, her father and Dutch authorities reached a compromise which allowed her to set sail last year when she was 15. Here’s a blog post I wrote about the controversy at the time.
I realize that many people would be appalled at the idea of a 15-year old girl sail solo around the world. Under normal circumstances it would be a crazy idea but I think Dekker is an exceptional case. Given her background, she probably knows more about the sea than most people twice, perhaps even three times her age.
Let me put it this way. Would you rather have your daughters keep up with the Kardashians or with someone like Laura Dekker?
In any case, I want to congratulate Ms. Dekker for her magnificent accomplishment.
View all comments (5) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/01/22/16-year-old-laura-dekker-compl
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Anommynous| 1.22.12 @ 4:06AM
Well-said.
Bob K.| 1.22.12 @ 10:21AM
Well done, but here is some perspective in case you want your kid to do this too!
She was born in New Zealand while her parents were on a round the world sailing trip and spent the 1st 4 years of her life on the ocean.
She received her first yacht(!) at age 6!
She has been sailing solo since age 10.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....sail-court
With this in mind, it makes William Tucker's article in this weekend's American Spectator Online on Environmentalism and the Leisure Class even more timely! Here is a quote from Torsten Veblen therein: "The leisure class is in a great measure sheltered from the stress of those economic exigencies which prevail in any highly organized industrial community........."
Russell| 1.23.12 @ 12:45AM
If Bob K thinks solo offshore sailors sheltered members of the leisure class , he should be cast adrift in his soapbox.
Bob K.| 1.23.12 @ 9:17AM
No Russell.
Only members of the leisure class get yachts when they are 6 years old.
Only members of the leisure class can afford to spend half their young lives sailing around the world, solo or not.
There are millions of young people her age in this world who could do the same thing had they the time and money she has. It would not be such a big deal if the opportunity were available to everyone else in her age group.
Did you ever read Joseph Conrad's short story, "Youth?"
Noztradamus| 1.27.12 @ 11:01AM
Bob K is thinking American where "yacht" conjures up the image if some 75fter with dance floor and jacuzzi (what the rest of the world calls a "gin-palace".
The rest of the world uses the meaning of a yacht being "sailing craft for pleasure/non commercial use", and they can be anything from 15ft up, costing in the tens rather than hundreds of thousands.
Laura's first boat was a 8ft Optimist sailing dingy, a small cheap boat built to introduce kids to sailing, and 6 years olds sailing them is normal.
When she was 10 she was living with her father on his yacht, and he bought her a smaller 21 ft yacht to serve as her bedroom. If he had owned a house and spent more than that yacht cost to build a bedroom extension to his house would anybody be thinking "he must be a 1% millionare to afford that"?
"Only members of the leisure class can afford to spend half their young lives sailing "? From the time she was 10, during her school summer vacations, she would untie her self-contained apartment from the dock and sail the Wadden Sea - cheaper than the American "Camp" thing.
When she was 13 she was ready to go a little further, so took an early education "gap year"
Didn't require vast amounts of money, just intelligence, resourcefulness, determination, and a certain disrespect for rules.