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Laura Dekker aboard Guppy |
This article was first published in issue 2 – 2012 of the Austrian YACHTREVUE magazine in February 2012. We would like to thank Mr. Luis Gazzari, chief editor of the YACHTREVUE magazine, for the permission to translate and to post this article.
Enjoy!
Thomas Weber & 45N73W
NB
[ ] Remarks between brackets are Translator Notes.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------NB
[ ] Remarks between brackets are Translator Notes.
Done it. After a long dispute with the authorities the at
that time almost 15 year old Dutch girl Laura Dekker finally started on her
solo circumnavigation in 2010. Now she has finished the lap around the world.
And she definitely turns away from her former country.
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“TROTZKOPF” (pighead) CROSSES THE
FINISHING LINE
By Judith Duller-Mayrhofer
Jessica,
Abby, Laura – three teenage sailors who made news. Jessica Watson finished her
trip in May 2010 and became the youngest person who sailed non-stop solo around
the globe at barely 16 years old. She was celebrated like a heroine in her
homeland Australia. The American Abby Sunderland was chasing for the same
title, however, after her boat had lost its rigging in June 2010 while sailing
across the Indian Ocean, she had to abandon her ship after a spectacular rescue
operation. And now there is Laura Dekker. She was short before her 15th
birthday when she set sail with her two-masted yacht ‘Guppy’ in Gibraltar on
August 21th 2010 to sail solo to the island of Lanzarote and then in several
stages around the globe. Young in years but rich in experiences, even more
experienced as most grown-ups. However, no one would envy her for some of her
experiences.
Born
on September 20th 1995 during her parent’s circumnavigation in the town of
Whangarei in New Zealand, Laura grew up together with her little sister aboard
a ship. When Laura became school-aged, the Family decided to settle down in the
father’s country Holland [must be The Netherlands; ‘Holland’ is the
North-Western part of The Netherlands]. That change did not bring fortune to
the couple; in 2002 they divorced. Mother Barbara moved to her former home
Germany with her younger daughter while father Dirk [must be Dick], a boat
builder who did not follow a formal education, stayed in Holland with Laura.
Together they lived aboard an old cutter rigged yacht near the city of Utrecht
[near Amsterdam].
When
she announced her plan to sail around the globe, Laura hadn’t even reached her
teenage years. Not non-stop but solo. And as the youngest person ever, of
course. Even though the World Speed Sailing Record Council that keeps the
record of all kinds of sailing records had abandoned the category “Youngest
Circumnavigator”, the public interest in such attempts still remained high.
Maybe this was one of the reasons Laura was supported by her father without
reservation. He gained sponsors, purchased a 27-foot boat [Guppy II, the Hurley
800], organized some extensive media work and puzzled out an itinerary; he expected
that two years would be enough for the tour around the world.
***
Thwarted
 |
Laura on her journey Photo: laura Dekker |
The
start was announced for September 1st 2009 – but the Dutch authorities put the
project to a halt. The authorities’ statement read as follows: First, Laura
would not be able to comply with her schooling, and second, the trip might
cause severe damage to her health and her mental development. A long move
through the instances followed, which was controversy discussed all over the
world. The juvenile boards became involved, the custody over Laura was partly
withdrawn from her parents, lawsuits were brought, psychologists wrote reports
and came to different conclusions.
In
an interview the mother stated that she opposes the trip, and as a reaction her
daughter let her know that she does not ever want to see her again. While
Laura’s grandparents insulted the social workers in charge in public, her
father purchased a bigger boat and equipped it with several security devices.
The juvenile boards however ‘tightened the screw’ and threatened Laura with a
possible confinement to a children home.
Laura
Dekker became famous but in a different way than she had expected. Obviously
very much stressed by the tug of war about her she flew in December 2009. She
was reported ‘missing’ and finally caught in the Dutch Antilles Islands; there
was rumor that she attempted suicide prior to that. Signs of an instable state
of mind or the result of insensitive actions by the officials? However – about
six months later, the officials backtracked and lifted the ward of state over
Laura. According to the judge the responsibility over the girl was put back
into her parents’ hands. Laura Dekker was free so to speak.
Only
a few days later she sailed off, accompanied by her father she sailed from
Holland to Portugal to get used to her new ‘Guppy’, a ketch-rigged 12 meters
long and 33 years old Jeanneau Gin Fizz. August 21st marks the
official start of her solo circumnavigation: in Gibraltar Laura threw off the
mooring ropes and sailed to the Canary Islands to wait for the hurricane season
on the Atlantic Ocean coming to an end.
In
December 2010 she crossed the Atlantic Ocean; she needed 17 days to cover the 2
200 nautical miles [4074 kilometres or 2532 land miles] from the Cape Verde
Islands to the Dutch Antilles. In the Caribbean she took a longer break and was
also visited by her father. In April 2011 she crossed the Panama Canal, then
roamed the Pacific Ocean and finally landed on the north coast of Australia in
August, where she stayed for one month. From there she conducted a TV-interview
on her 16th birthday that cause a great stir again.
***
New
trouble
 |
Laura & family Photo: Stephan Kogelman/AP |
The
student who followed school by a correspondence course during her trip openly
admitted that she had put her schoolwork at the backburner since it was more
important for her to care for the boat than to sit down with the books. That
caused a great stir in the Netherlands. The education office summoned her
father for a discussion and since he did not follow that request, a
disciplinary procedure was imminent. Laura countered that she regarded the
action by the education office as an interference in her private life, and in a
kind of symbolic act she interchanged the flag of The Netherlands aboard her
boat with the flag of New Zealand.
She
does not want to live in Holland in anyway, since - in Laura’s own words -
‘that uptight land’ had tried to break her, hence she would never return there.
Soon after that scandal that was expatiate with joy in Holland, she sailed off
again. Originally, Laura Dekker had planned to sail through the Gulf of Aden
and back to Europe, however, due to imminent danger of piracy that plan was
dropped. And so she set sail towards the Cape of Good Hope and sailed over 6
000 nautical miles [11 112 kilometres or 6 906 land miles] non-stop from
Darwin, Australia, to South Africa and arrived in Durban by mid November.
From
there it went on easy; her last big lay brought her back to Sint Maarten. On
January 21st 2012 she sailed into Simpson Bay where she was welcomed
by her family, about 150 fans and the media pack.
She
had won the fight, finished the project and broke the record, even though it
won’t be recognized as one. 27 000 nautical miles [50 004 kilometres or 31 078
land miles] and 519 days [must be 518 days] are behind Laura Dekker – a
remarkable achievement. What is waiting for her in the future is more difficult
to tell. On her blog she wrote that she plans to move to New Zealand or
Australia to start a professional sailing career there.
“To
me it feels like it is something quite normal to be the one to have
circumnavigated the world solo as the youngest ever. As such to me it does
neither feel like it is the end or the beginning of something but simply a part
of my life. My trip was exactly everything what I had been looking for: the
unknown countries and places, the peaceful quiet and vastness of the sea, the
communion with nature.” She wrote. At least her quiet will be over for a while.
A book and a TV-documentary will be released soon, a proper hype is to be expected.
Maybe she had fought for that, too…
www.lauradekker.nl
On http://zeilmeisje-lauradekker.blogspot.ca/p/lauras-weblog-deutsche-ubersetzung.html you can find a very good German translation of her blog.
***
The fans
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The fans waiting at arrival Photo: Stephan Kogelman/AP |
The fans were waiting for Laura Dekker at the Simpson Bay in the Caribbean island St. Maarten. All over the world the interference by the Dutch officials was discussed controversy. [Yachtrevue 2]
***
The father
|
Laura & Family Photo: Stephan Kogelman/AP |
The father (right) has always backed Laura’s ambitions and set up a
campaign. A manager takes care of the marketing of the project. Soon a book and
a TV-documentary will be released. [Yachtrevue 3]
Scenes from the trip. Laura trims the boat, has a dickey as
a visitor, plays the guitar and steers the dinghy. And neither parents nor
teachers tell her what to do… [Yachtrevue 5]
***
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This report
was first published in issue 2 of Yachtrevue magazine february 2012.
NB
[ ] All remarks between brackets are translator notes.
