World's Youngest To Circumnavigate, Maybe

[Aquaria]

Gone are the times when young people with almost no money and no intention to find sponsors, built (or bought) a small boat that fits their budget and started to sail, not even intending to sail around the world. They just loved to sail and they loved the cruising life. They did not care about records (youngest kid single handing on smallest boat...), they just did it. This is it, what makes them interesting to us cruising folks and their books we love to read. Shane Acton (here) on his 18ft yacht Shrimpy was one of these quiet heroes and my favorite. The interest in his journey grew with his miles, and not the other way around. I have read his book several times and my first boat I built was this 18 ft Robert Tucker designed Caprice and this circumnavigator by coincidence triggered my wish and plans to do long distance sailing.

But todays media are not interested in this kind of personal accomplishments, because there are no breath taking records and they are not sponsored and therefore pushed into the public so that the advertisements are on all channels... (a sailing boat without commercials on hull, rigging and sails is of no value for the media).

So, the real sailors are still around, but no chance we read about them because the media do not find it interesting to publish their journeys. That´s too bad.

Uwe

SY Aquaria