Jul 16 2009
Zac Sunderland Youngest Solo Trip Round the World
Zac Sunderland is Youngest Person to Sail Solo Around the World
Californian dude Zac Sunderland has just become the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe alone in a boat. He took 13 months to complete the trip and as he was born on November 29, 1991 he was under 18 when he finished the trip today. The previous youngest was Ozzie David Dicks, who was 18 years and 41 days when he finished his completed his round the globe trip.
Well done to both of them! Quite an extraoirdniary achievement really.
Zac Sunderland set sail from Marina del Rey 13 months ago and arrived back today where he was welcomed by dozens of boats and yachts, at Fisherman’s Village.
During his journey he crossed five seas and three oceans, crossed the equator twice, travelled over 25,000 miles and at one time had to evade pirates inside his bullet-proof glass cabin. He also had to overcome a broken boom, broken forestay rigging, broken tiller, broken bulkhead, and was swamped and almost washed overboard.
Zac’s parents have been criticized by some people for letting a teenager undertake such a dangerous adventure. “This is our whole life — boating, and Laurence has felt a huge amount of responsibility,” Marianne Sunderland, Zac’s mother, said “Zac has had all the best safety equipment — from satellite phones to his own meteorologists, and everyone to help him. With modern technology there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be successful.”
According to Zac the most difficult thing about the trip was that “there’s no normalcy. Every day is different. Never being anywhere at a certain time is hard to get used to.”
Unfortunately Zac’s record may be broken very soon, a Brit called Mike Perham set off on a similar trip last November and should complete his solo voyage in about 3 weeks time.
If Perham is successful he will be younger than Sunderland when he finishes. The two intrepid sailors met totally by accident in Cape Town, South Africa recently.
Sunderland bought his 36-foot Islander sailboat, Intrepid, using $6000 he had saved up himself and that he and his father retrofitted .
Zac’s sponsors were Produce for Kids, Shuman’s RealSweet and Mastronardi’s Sunset Produce, as he wanted to promote healthy eating among kids. A book and a DVD are planned .
