Posted by Alex Forbes on August 30, 2009 at 05:38:58 user Pitsligo.
In Reply to: Re: The boundaries of parental responsibility posted by John Lambert on August 30, 2009 at 23:06:45:
If she hadn't been born on a boat, reared aboard, and had, effectively, 13 years of sailing experience --much of it blue water time-- under her belt, I'd agree with you.
Given that she grew up with the mental challenges of just being at sea, and has already done a fair bit of single-handing, I'd be inclined to write off a good percentage of the potential for the situation to intimidate or overwhelm her mentally/emotionally. Not all, certainly, but if she plans her route carefully --shortest legs possible, with adequate rest time (mental and physical) between legs-- I think she could do it, and probably a lot better than most.
As for the physical challenges, the small size of her boat could become a real asset. It takes a lot less to wrestle in any one chunk of sail on a 26' sloop than on, say, a 36' sloop, and the relative strains on gear grow much less. Whether her boat is, in design and construction, up to the task is an entirely different question. I've seen 36' cockles in which I wouldn't cross Puget Sound, and I've known and sailed a 26' sloop that was just setting out for her fifth (?)(many times, anyhow) round-the-world cruise. (Look up the sloop Plumbelly, if you're interested; I think I heard she's currently for sale.) Her owner said he wouldn't want anything larger, as when the weather got dirty, he'd just heave-to, and she'd "nestle" down in the troughs, snug as could be. My own 19' sloop brought me through 59 knots (as later reported by the Coast Guard) in open water off the coast of Maine. She's an open boat, and it wasn't a lot of fun, but it was certainly survivable; had she been set up for such heavy weather from the outset, it wouldn't have been much of a bother. Only the lack of a self-bailing cockpit was a worry. (I got caught out; I can almost promise, from personal experience, that a 16-year-old-boy is dumber than a 13-year-old-girl.)
Does anyone know anything specific about her boat? Design? Construction? I assume jib-headed sloop rig, by modern default.
I don't think I'd advise her to take the Southern Ocean route, but low-lats, through the PC and Suez (risks from pirates are an issue she'd need to address before I'd let her go), and pick her weather, and I expect she'd be fine.
Homework? Nuts to homework! She'd be an idiot if she even bothered bringing the books. Wasted space. A year and a half without homework won't kill anyone, or even set them back irretrievably. She'll get more geography, science, math, physics --and PhysEd!-- than any ten land-bound kids her age. (And I don't mean to rail and rant at you in specific, Mr. Lambert, but at a society that places book learning so unassailably above experiential learning. They both have their place, and neither to the exclusion of the other. It's a pet peeve of mine, and if I'm offensive, I apologize.)
It's a huge undertaking, and I'm not saying she *is* up to it, only that she certainly might be, and it'd be an awful waste if adult, land-bound "experts", with scanty knowledge of voyaging, held back a young woman, born and reared to voyaging, on age alone.
Alex