Dutch teenager Laura Dekker has completed her solo circumnavigation of the globe, becoming the youngest person to do so.
A cheering crowd greeted her as she sailed into St Maarten harbour in the Caribbean after a year at sea. Ms Dekker is now 16 years and 123 days old. She left St Maarten on 20 January 2011 aboard her 11.5-metre boat Guppy.
The teenager, who turns 17 on September 20, has beaten the current record by some eight months. The previous record holder was Australian Jessica Watson, who achieved it in May 2010, three days before she turned 17. But unlike Watson, who circumnavigated the globe non-stop, Dekker sailed from port-to-port and was never at sea for more than three weeks.
Runaway
Ms Dekker's achievement will not be entered in the Guinness Book of World Records, which no longer recognizes records by minors which it considers "unsuitable." Her manager has stressed that what matters to the teenager is not the record. "What is important, is that her dream has become reality," he said. Laura Dekker was born on a yacht off the coast of New Zealand during a seven-year world trip by her parents.
A Dutch court blocked plans for her to cast off when she was just 14 and placed her in the care of welfare officers, on the grounds that she was too young to guarantee her safety at sea. She ran away to St Maarten, an island of the Lesser Antilles divided between France and the Netherlands, and police had to escort her back home.
Graduate
She eventually won a court case against Dutch social services, who argued that the unassisted world tour could harm her emotional and social development. The Guinness Book of World Records decided to stop "youngest" records for sailing after the controversy surrounding her bid.
Two weeks ago she claimed she kept up her school homework throughout the year she was at sea. She plans to graduate later this year. She says she doesn’t yet know what she will do next, but she is determined not to return to the Netherlands.
(cl/imm)
© Radio Netherlands Worldwide
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gottlieb, your euro liberal nonsense is stinking up the forums especially on swissinfo. sickening. get a job.
She's natural beautiful and little hard charateristic. but exactly where she is born.?
Some sour grapes here?
gottlieb, sthu.
your euro liberal crap is stinking up the forums especially on swisinfo...sickening. get a job.
@RNW ;
I am very disappointed with Radio Netherlands’ unprofessional coverage re Laura, and this story in particulier.
Laura Dekker was born in New Zealand and has the NZ nationality, her father is Dutch and her mother German.
you are well aware of the FACT that Laura travelled on her New Zealand passport and had a New Zealand flag on her boat when she arrived, but you failed to mention this.
”A cheering crowd” is dozens of people, surely the disappointing size of the crowd was worth a mention. Dick Dekker, Laura's father, was expecting a crowd of 1000.
“Dekker sailed from port-to-port and was never at sea for more than three weeks.”; you also failed to mention here that Laura even returned to the Netherlands during this trip.
I believe you mean to specify, not Dutch, but Kiwi teenager Laura Dekker. She was born in New Zealand and gets to claim citizenship. Too bad Holland, and too bad Dutch social services. I would say that NOT sailing the world would have harmed her emotional and social development. Well done, Laura!
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