Sailing around the world alone at 16 years old

Wikimedia image

On June 14th Zac Sunderland is setting out from Los Angeles to circumnavigate the globe alone on his 36' Islander sailboat, the Intrepid. Zac is 16 years old. Zac's goal is to complete the journey prior to his 18th birthday. This will put him in the record books as the youngest person to ever solo-circumnavigate. Zac was born on a boat and grew up sailing. He is the oldest of seven children. Last year he starred as middle linebacker on his high school's JV football team. This coming year he'll be, um, "home schooled". He'll be taking course work with him on his journey and sending it in to his mom via satellite e-mail.. Zac's dad is a shipwright. The elder Sunderland's connections enabled Zac to acquire the 36' Islander for $6,000, 1/5 of its actual value. Dad has also been helpful in getting Zac good deals for fitting the boat out for the voyage. Zac professes to be unfazed by the journey that lies ahead of him. His biggest worry has been pirate attacks off Somalia. This has caused him to chart a course around Africa through the rough waters at the Cape of Good Hope rather than through the Suez Canal.

Zac was inspired by the stories of Robin Lee Graham and Jesse Martin. Graham sailed around the world alone over the course of 4 years beginning in 1965 at the age of 16. Martin is the youngest person to ever solo-circumnavigate non-stop and without assistance. Martin started his voyage at 17 and completed it when he was 18. All solo circumnavigators follow in the footsteps of Captain Joshua Slocum
who's story of Sailing Alone Around the World at the end of the 19th century on his 37' sloop (later a yawl), the Spray, is a seafaring classic.

Here is Slocum's description of the start of his journey:

"I had resolved on a voyage around the world, and as the wind on the morning of April 24, 1895 was fair, at noon I weighed anchor, set sail, and filled away from Boston, where the Spray had been moored snugly all winter. The twelve o'clock whistles were blowing just as the sloop shot ahead under full sail. A short board was made up the harbor on the port tack, then coming about she stood to seaward, with her boom well off to port, and swung past the ferries with lively heels. A photographer on the outer pier of East Boston got a picture of her as she swept by, her flag at the peak throwing her folds clear. A thrilling pulse beat high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood."

You can follow Zac's journey here.

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email This

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry