16 yr old teen lost at sea

[trax1]

Tragedies usually happen when you have a child trying to break records to dangerous things, like the little girl who tried to be the youngest person to fly, she was 7yrs old and her, her father, & the flight instructor died when she crashed the plane, as a parent you just have to ask yourself, is he/she doing this worth the risk of something going wrong, and with these type of activities when something goes wrong people lose their lives.

[Tupac]

I'm confused how keeping your kids straight growing up in a rough area - whilst praiseworthy - qualifies you to judge whether a 16 year old is able to sail around the world. Particularly given - and I'm going out on a limb here - I assume the majority of you have little or no experience of sailing on which to make a judgment. 'Monday Morning Quarterbacks' comes to mind.

Seeing as how we're throwing opinions out though, some of you sound like overbearing parents from hell. You are, of course, entitled to raise your kids in whatever way you see fit, but thank God you weren't my parents.

I sail almost every weekend in my sunfish, and with my friends once or twice a month in his hobie cat.

Also I sail in lakes where the win direction changes, which is much more difficult than bay or even open water sailing where the wind direction is (for the most part) the same.

[bj229r]

Not having read the article, I'm going our on a limb and say they're from CA

I'm psychic!

French fishing boat rescues stranded Calif. teen

....Zac Sunderland, her brother, held the record for a little more than a month last year until Briton Mike Perham completed his own journey. The record changed hands again last month, when 16-year-old Australian Jessica Watson completed her own around-the-world voyage....

...Veteran sailors questioned the wisdom of sending a teenager off alone in a small boat, knowing it would be tossed about for 30 or more hours at a time by the giant waves that rake the Southern Hemisphere's oceans this time of year.

[Penguin]

lol obviously you are oblivious to the fact that in the very small town I live in, there are 16 and 17 year old heroin junkies, kids in 7th grade getting pregnant,  ecstasy is rampant,  drugs are a huge problem.

I lived on the streets in a much bigger town/city when I was a very young, I started out at around 9 yrs old sleeping on the streets,I grew up stealing so I could eat, did 10 years locked up before I was 22,  so I know a bit about the rough life, and what happens to teens who have no parent control.
     so don't try to tell me I am wrong, I have some of the most respectable and well behaved kids around, hell we had a bus driver tell my wife,"you have the best kids I ever had on my bus"   I know exactly what I am doing when it comes to my kids.

I don't lie to them about anything, and if there is something to mature for them to know, I tell them when they are older I will explain, you would be surprised at how amazing my kids are.

btw I have 6... a 16 yr old Girl, a 13 yr old girl, a 12 yr old girl,  11 yr old boy, 7 yr old girl,4 yr old boy.
yes all from the same woman, My wife of 17 years.

Read the disclaimer at the top of my arguement- it doesn't apply if you are in a rough neighbourhood.  Next, you ignored my point about control not being a binary function- saying that no parent control= chaos (a statement that I agree with, so don't take it the wrong way).

Ignorance is bliss I suppose, you just downplay major points of mine to assume the moral highground- typical.

-Penguin

[crazyivan]

I sail almost every weekend in my sunfish, and with my friends once or twice a month in his hobie cat.

Also I sail in lakes where the win direction changes, which is much more difficult than bay or even open water sailing where the wind direction is (for the most part) the same.

Winds always change on the bay daily plus tides, currents, other boats, and storms.  You just keep that toy sailboat on the lake where it belongs.

Lake meet real bay!

[68Wooley]

I sail almost every weekend in my sunfish, and with my friends once or twice a month in his hobie cat.

Also I sail in lakes where the win direction changes, which is much more difficult than bay or even open water sailing where the wind direction is (for the most part) the same.

The best sailors in the world all learned in dingies - they are great because any mistakes have immediate effects ranging from you'll be much slower than everyone else to you're taking a swim, whereas in yachts you can sail poorly and in light conditions you'll never know.

That said, if you think there will be no wind changes in coastal or offshore sailing, I strongly suggest you stick to that lake of yours.

[Tupac]

I sailed in San fransisco bay in a sunfish, and go down to rockport every summer. As I said, for the most part the wind direction is the same, it changes depending on the time and I didn't mention the currents and tides. crazyivan, it's not a "toy" sailboat, I sail in reggattas, and i've got a racing sail and an extended centerboard. I'm 16, don't expect a J26 or a Catalina, I'm proud of my boat, but haters gonna hate.

Give me a 42 foot boat and 5000 dollars of computers and navigation equipment I'll sail around the world too.
Honestly I shouldn't post on this board and not expect to get flamed. What sailing experience did you have when you were 16?

[Dadano]

She stopped because she was rolled and lost her rig Tupac. 

[Tupac]

She stopped because she was rolled and lost her rig Tupac. 

oh, I thought her navigation equipment malfunctioned in bad weather. My bad

[Tupac]

Honestly, at the beginning i was for her sailing around the world, however the more i think about it the more im questioning the judgement of the parents. Let me name a few things here, 30-40 foot swells in a 42 foot boat, Ice, Pirates (Off the coast of africa) And being 12-30 hours from a rescue boat the majority of the time. If i jibed in my sunfish and got KOed by the boom swinging around (it rides low due to the larger sail) Id want help there ASAP. It says in the article that the rescue boats were 1 day away, (let me make a comparison here) How many parents would let their kids go on a drive through siberia that lasts 240 days with the nearest help being 1 day away? If she got knocked off the boat, even if she was in her survival suit she wouldnt last a day.


On a side note, lake sailing is just as "Real" as bay sailing. Id reccomend trying it if you dont think so, youre in for a suprise.

[crazyivan]

I. What sailing experience did you have when you were 16?

Started around 11yrsold  optimist. Then lasers, kinda like a sunfish. Around 16 i crewed in penguins at local regattas. At that age , summertime was working on workboat/crab boat. Curently  just have  a Boston Whaler just to cruz around in and drink beers. Just got a kayak too but wont see me in the bay with that hehe. Sailing is a good hobby growing up  salute  have fun with  it.

[68Wooley]

Royal Yachting Association Advanced Level Instructor.

At 16 I was captain of my school team. At 18 I was an instructor and doing delivery cruises from Scotland to Norway, France and the Mediteranean via the Bay of Biscay. I've sailed boats varying in size from 12 foot Toppers all the way up to Volvo 60's. I've sailed on man-made lakes, sea lochs, the North Sea in Force 7 gales, the Irish Sea, Carribean, Mediteranean, Atlantic and Pacific.

Sailing your Sunfish is great - keep it up and have fun with it. But even you have to know that it tells you very little about what's involved in circumnavigating the globe.

[crazyivan]

Royal Yachting Association Advanced Level Instructor.

.

Sailing your Sunfish is great - keep it up and have fun with it. But even you have to know that it tells you very little about what's involved in circumnavigating the globe.

LOL, yeah in a regatta well storm was coming. I tried to ride  my laser and rolled back the other way and the dagger board fell out. I turtled it, and was in the middle of the river clinging to boat thinking this is grand. I earned the bottoms up award that year at the yacht club. I have very little clue what she must've been thinking. I still think she has cajones.

[1pLUs44]

THEN THEY WILL BE ADULTS TO DO WHAT THEY WANT, BUT THEY WILL HAVE FULL KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT IS IN THIS WORLD AND WHAT IT TAKES TO BE AN ADULT, BESIDES A BIT OF PARTING IS GOOD FOR YA

Ah, you may have a point, but the wildest kids I know are the ones whose parents always watch carefully over them. I know damn well the consequences of my actions if I do something bad, but I'm not completely confined to my parents' watchful eyes.

Ex. I can stay out as late as I want, but if I get in trouble, I can expect a beat down from my old man whenever I get home.

 

[VonMessa]

Wow.

I'm a fairly Nazi-esque parent.  I do, in fact, have a keylogger on the computer that they use.  It's not to catch them, per se.  It is to catch some sick F, pervert so I can track him down and kill them if need be.

Teaching you children the difference between right and wrong and how to choose between the two is the most important thing in their life.  The more you try to squeeze, the more slips through the fingers.  Rather than be completely controlling tight up to the day they become 18, one has to start letting go, little by little.  If you have done your job correctly, your kids will know how to make the right decision.

I'd have to disagree with the boating experience from birth to 5 years old meaning nothing.  My family has owned boats all every kind for as long as I can research and I could swim before I could walk or talk.  I think that this makes a load of difference.

I would prefer that my daughter try to sail the world, as opposed to, seeing if she could break the local record for number of father's for her illegitimate children, or booting heroin for that matter. 

Others may disagree, but having a license and driving a vehicle, unsupervised, is a VERY dangerous responsibility.  One can go pretty dar and find lots of trouble in a car with 2-3 hours of free time.

Where I would have exercised my parental powers  of VETO, however were the time of year that she chose to leave and the lack of comms.