Teen prepares to smash world sailing record
Tue 23 June 2009
Andrew Ward, Post-graduate journalism
Sixteen-year-old Buderim schoolgirl Jessica Watson said she had every chance to be the youngest person ever to sail around the world, despite warnings that she was too young.
Miss Watson's solitary journey across 22,000 nautical miles of ocean aboard a 10m sloop was scheduled to begin in Mooloolaba mid-September 2009.
“It's a personal test,” Miss Watson said.
“It's an adventure, and the record's there to be broken.”
Born and raised on the Gold Coast, Miss Watson grew up sailing boats.
“There were a lot of tests along the way,” Miss Watson said.
After a successful stint racing dinghies, friends encouraged Miss Watson to skipper bigger boats in bigger races, with her biggest challenge coming when she skippered a 34-foot boat across the Tasman Sea in early 2009.
“I had to prepare the boat and to navigate... communicate and physically sail it and that was a really good test for me,” Miss Watson said.
Solo circumnavigation website ranked Australian adventurers David Dicks and
Jesse Martin as officially the world's youngest people to sail around the world.
Mr Martin's voyage was trouble-free, placing him in a different category than Mr Dicks, who required the British navy's assistance to replace a major rigging bolt.
Mr Dicks, however, was younger than Mr Martin when he sailed, and his “age” record still stands.
If successful, Miss Watson would break both Mr Dicks and Mr Martin's solo sailing records in a single voyage.
Miss Watson said she found Mr Martin breaking the world solo sailing record unassisted as an 18-year-old in 1999 inspiring.
“What set it all off was mum reading me Jesse Martin's book and that put the idea in my head.”
Miss Watson also said inspiration came from positive people with a “nothing’s impossible attitude”.
While some people warned that she was too young to sail alone around the world, Miss Watson said her parents would never allow the voyage to go ahead “if everything wasn't done the right way”.
“I want to sail around the world as a 16-year-old... that is the thing I'm setting out to achieve and there are a lot of people who are saying I should wait a few years but that isn't what it's about,” Miss Watson said.
“A few more years I might have a little more experience, maybe, but I'm ready to go now and a lot of the people who are supporting me know that I'm ready to go now.”
Sunshine Sailing Australia Mooloolaba chief instructor John Bankart said Miss Watson was a focused and capable sailor, and that she and her older sister Emily were excellent dinghy sailors, having employed the girls as dinghy instructors about five years ago.
“They had great attitude and great sailing ability,” Mr Bankart said.
“She's got the right boat and she's got a good team behind her.”
Miss Watson agreed that sailing around the world as a teenager was risky, but it was a risk she was prepared to take.
Sunshine Coast Youth Partnership (SCYP) CEO and former ALP candidate for Caloundra Jody Tunnicliff said certain risks were inevitable.
“There's very little in life that you can do that doesn't carry risk,” Ms Tunnicliff said.
Ms Tunnicliff said Miss Watson was a positive young role model and if risk assessment and harm minimisation strategies were in place, the voyage was a “fantastic idea”.
SCYP, a non-profit organisation, aimed to maximise young people's potential in all areas of community life.
Australian explorer Don McIntyre agreed to finance the yacht Miss Watson would use, aptly named YoungestRound.
Miss Watson said the yacht was a “really good kick-start and that's what I needed to get rolling”.
YoungestRound was modified Sparkman and Stephens sloop fitted with the latest in communications devices and digital tracking systems.
Miss Watson said the boat would have a “tracker which bleeps back a signal to the website on the tracking map every three minutes letting me know exactly where I am”.
Miss Watson admitted she had neglected her school studies because of the amount of preparation needed for the voyage.
When she finished her trip, she wanted to go back to school and continue with her studies, after which she planned to compete in Europe.
World Sailing Speed Record Council website stated that, to sail around the world, “a vessel must start from and return to the same point, must cross all meridians of longitude and must cross the Equator”.
Single-handed sailors who wished to break world records had to follow strict guidelines.
Sailors could accept help from other vessels in emergency situations.
However, if a single-handed skipper accepted any outside help, then her/his voyage may be downgraded or placed under a different category.
Image(s) designed by Andrew Ward