Quote:
Originally Posted by Weyalan
Jessica Watson was another of the "youngest RTW" crowd
Not wishing to denigrate her achievements - what she did was undoubtedly remarkable, and she sure seems like a nice kid, but what she didn't do was sail around the world. There is quite a clear definition of what constitutes sailing around the world, and what she did wasn't it. But "youngest girl to sail 97.6% round the world" doesn't sound so good
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G'Day Patrick,
Well, I dunno... the definition that you are (I think) referring to was established by some arbitrary group who have said that they are the authority. I suspect that they were folks from old Blighty who, due to their unfortunate location on the globe must sail a hell of a long way south before rounding the Capes and getting on with their aim of circumnavigating. It gets up their nose that others live in more convenient places (and with better wx, too), so they threw in some arbitrary dodges in the
route to keep out the riff-raff. Since those same folks don't now recognize age as part of recognizing records, it is of little importance what
route she sailed, even to the
record books.
Jessica set out from the
East coast of Oz, she kept sailing until she got back to the
East coast of Oz, she crossed the equator... good enough for me. Honestly, I don't care at all for the frenzy of attention that stunt sailors court, no matter what their age, gender,
race, physical disabilities, planetary origin or choice of
music might be. If they accomplish a noteworthy voyage, good on 'em, if they fail, I hope that they enjoyed the trip up to that point. But I'm not likely to buy the brand of cereal that is on their
mainsail logo, or whatever.
Cheers and enjoy the big high that looms over Tassie just now!
Jim