Court Bars Laura Dekker from Solo Voyage

[MarkJ]

Dutch court bans girl from solo world voyage

October 30, 2009 - 11:14PM
A Dutch court on Friday barred 14-year-old Laura Dekker from setting off on a round-the-world solo yacht trip for at least eight months, citing safety concerns and placing her in care.


"Laura Dekker is hereby placed under the care of child care services until July 1 2010."

To read the entire article, go to:

http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-n...1030-hpvt.html

[Canibul]

Something about a court being able to prevent someone who is not a fugitive or criminal from going sailing just doesn't sit right with me, somehow.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Canibul

Something about a court being able to prevent someone who is not a fugitive or criminal from going sailing just doesn't sit right with me, somehow.

Criminal law is just one very small part of any democracies justice system.

[Canibul]

Guess it's a good thing they didn't get hold of Joan of Arc.

[s/v Moondancer]

The 'State' has a legitimate interest in the safety and well-being of minors, who generally are unable to protect themselves, and this is what the Dutch court used as justification for its decision. It's all part of the package that prevents mental, physical and sexual abuse of children. The Court showed fairness by getting the opinions of a doctor and a professional sailor.

When a democracy formulates laws we have to sign on to the total package and cannot 'cherry pick' the ones we like.

[sec906]

Originally Posted by Canibul

Something about a court being able to prevent someone who is not a fugitive or criminal from going sailing just doesn't sit right with me, somehow.

Yeah, and even worse than not letting her sail around the world, they won't even let her drive a car to the corner grocery.

[Canibul]

reminds me of one definition of a liberal as someone who has convinced themselves that they somehow know more about your experience than you do.

Just curious, but how many teenagers have been injured or damaged sailing in the open ocean? Must be a huge percentage.

As far as comparing sailing to driving an automobile in traffic.....
well, I won't presume to know more about your experience than you do.

[TaoJones]

Just a heads up, folks. Injecting your political views into what will most likely be a contentious thread is only going to result in this thread being kept under close scrutiny and, very likely, early closure. Please take your political views to other websites where there may be others who would like to read them.

Thank you for your cooperation.

TaoJones

[LakeSuperior]

You might as well end the thread now...what else could one reflect on regarding this specific example of government intervention brought to us in the initial post?

IMO, there are political views injected far and wide throughout Cruisers Forum threads, just without the labels conservative or liberal attached.

[TaoJones]

With almost 27,000 registered members, 30,000 threads and 350,000 posts, it should come as no surprise to anyone that no one has read every word that has been posted here. People, reacting emotionally to something, often post without carefully considering their words, and, as a result, politics or religion can creep into threads.

If you would like to be helpful, LakeSuperior, make use of the Report Post button at the lower left of every post on this site (white triangle, red border, black exclamation mark) to bring any such instance of "...political views injected far and wide throughout Cruisers Forum threads..." to our attention.

TaoJones

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by TaoJones

With almost 27,000 registered members, 30,000 threads and 350,000 posts, it should come as no surprise to anyone that no one has read every word that has been posted here. People, reacting emotionally to something, often post without carefully considering their words ...

I beg your pardon ... which of us hasn’t read every word written here?
Heck, I wrote many of them.
Being so busy reading, I don’t always take the time to properly consider my words, prior to posting them. Sorry, for that.

[TaoJones]

Hmmm . . . good point. Well, except for Gord, no one has read every word posted on CF.

TaoJones

[Solitude]

What was this post about?

[paradix]

How old was Mike Perham when he sailed solo across the Atlantic? My recollection is that he was 14. Was there a legal attempt to stop him?

(Incidentally - mods - this is a genuine "just interested" question, not an expression of a political view one way or the other )

[TaoJones]

All of the important information in this thread was contained in MarkJ's thread-opening post. Nothing worthwhile has been added since. As a result, this thread is closed.

TaoJones