Desperate search for 16-year-old lone US sailor

^^ Agree, also shows why the were so many concerned about JW's trip.

I don't think she will be as it was going to take someone 3 hours to get to her..
But we live in hope..

Hang in there Abby.

soloround.blogspot.com/

Abby's parents wrote: "Abby has all of the equipment on board to survive a crisis situation like this. She has a dry suit, survival suit, life raft, and ditch bag with emergency supplies. If she can keep warm and hang on, help will be there as soon as possible. Wild Eyes is designed for travel in the Southern Ocean and is equipped with 5 air-tight bulkheads to keep her buoyant in the event of major hull damage. It is built to Category 0 standards and is designed to self-right in the event of capsize."

All good, she has been found safe and well. The boat has been dismasted but the hull is intact and Abby is not injured. She will be picked up tomorrow and the boat scuttled.

Thank Goodness.....

bl00dy kids!...

Good to hear she is well!!
Problem i see is more children (cause thats what they are) will attempt this until one or more get killed. The obvious answer will be for authorities to bring in laws & regulations to stop this happening, more licensing, higher rego & insurances. End result it will cost me more money & restrict me from following my dreams....Seriously these children can only have so much experience, jw 5 years from age 11. It not much weekend & holidays i presume she went to school!!!! I've been sailing over 15years & wouldnt attempt a solo sail, solo sailing is living on luck, you can reduce risk but the rest is luck!!!

I don't know why people are so down on these kids following their dreams. More kids are killed by motorbikes, pushbikes, motor cars, sports of various kinds etc than sailing of any kind. If you stop kids from following their dreams in case something bad happens, they may as well sit at home and play their playstations and watch tv. But they will probabley die from obesity or heart disease. Rant over

You don't have to read this thread if you don't like it. It's entirely your choice mate.

Back to the topic: I think it's great that people pursue their dreams but this type of thing (as well as JW's trip) is irresponsible stunt in my opinion.

I had a quick read through the blog & as soon as things go wrong the parents were "working closely with American, French and Australian Search & Rescue authorities to coordinate several ships in the area to divert to her location".

Like Search & Rescue services of 3 different countries + several other ships have nothing better to do?

I'm not saying she shouldn't be rescued, all I'm saying is she shouldn't have been there in the first place.

^^^^

+1 stunt. Hope she gets back safe but the parents of all these kids need a slap on the back of the head. Somebody now has to risk THEIR life to go out and rescue her!

I find it interesting that people jump into the kids shouldn't do it debate - there have been quite a few "professional yachts men" the have been dismasted/holed/ds keeled/injured who have multiple million dollar budgets that haven't done half as well as the "kids" that have attempted this - case in point was the last solo round the world where a portion of the fleet didn't make it through the first 72 hours (from memory only 1/3 finished - one guy finished with out a keel!)

I beleive the reason she left during the wrong season was in order to beat Jessica's record - she had an initial crack at it but had issues that lead to a late departure.

My point exactly professionals with years of experience struggle so why send your child.
Secondly Braking age records is inherently dangerous. Eventually a 15 then 14,13,12,11 where do we stop!!
What is the age limit you would put on it? 12years old or 8. Maybe leave it to the parent, they always know what's best & would never chase a dollar!!!

If you say "NO!" to anything....determined kids will just borrow the boat/car

/bike/plane/etc and have a go anyway, i know i did and lived thru it. The

envelope has been pushed that far now and the limit is still not able to be

seen. Kids is kids. Could anyone really stop you........????. Some will dye trying

but that is a very small percentage of the kids in the world. Others will be

damaged, most will have an attempt, fail and coyly decide its not for them.

If it happened two or three times a year then I think something should be done to stop it,.. but it doesn't.
Regarding the cost of the rescue exercise, the rescue services often plan and carry out a fake rescue mission just to make sure they have got their act together.
Quite often they have not and things go pear shape.
Every now and then it's probably a good thing to have a real emergency so we can see that things really work the way they should.

Same with the army. If there is no war then they play war games.
At the moment we have a few nice wars to choose from so no need for war games.

So the question of whether a 16 year old should go or not should be left up to the judgement of their parents taking into consideration others advice and everything they know about the kid.
I'm sure they did that.
I can't imagine anyone would send one of their children off on such an exercise without a confident expectation that they woud return.

As to whether this will result in 12 year olds trying the same trick, it is extremely unlikely because I would guess it would be impossible to find both parents and a support crew that could be convinced the kid would be up to the job.

Slightly different in degree, doncha think?

Surfing carries some risks, yes, but is generally regarded as a relatively safe persuit. Sailing solo through the southern ocean in winter is generally regarded as complete UNsafe.

Being attacked by a shark is a risk of surfing but it's usually seen as a minor risk. Damage, dismasting, sinking and death is seen as a very real possibility of sailing through the southern ocean in winter regardless of the age of the sailor. In fact, isn't that part of the point? People wouldn't be yammering about how inspiring these kids were if it WASN'T an inherently difficult and dangerous pursuit.

The rescuer may have to go out a few hundred metres to effect the surfers rescue. They'd need to go thousands of kilometres through some of the worst water on the planet for the solo sailor.