Youngest sailor across the pond; Where will it end?

Its a fantastic acheivement by anyone's standards but surely they knew they would be courting controversy by crossing in tandem in boats designed and marketed by his father and against the advice of the MCA? It's hardly surprising there are a diverse range of comments on the topic and people should be free to express their opinions
 
Mme Sgeir was taken aback with the BBC Radio 4 reporting of the occasion, saying that young Mr Perham has set a new record for being the youngest single-handed transatlantic sailor. Oh dear. Where is this going to end?

Having said that, I was very impressed by his achievement.
 
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Trouble with you parent type people is you get all mother hennish anytime some young whippersnapper does anything of merit.

I think the lad did very well, what do you want me to to do, carve it in stone on Dartmoor?

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A voyage of this nature starts with the planning, fund-raising and fitting out the yacht. In my opinion this can be as challenging - if not more so - than the journey itself. It's this aspect of the voyage that gains my greatest respect.

Mike's crossing is a formidable achievement, but I suspect that doing it again, having to project manage, budget and fund it himself, would make the adventure much more of a challenge and fuller learning experience and leave him with a much greater sense of acheivement.

I know he is only 14, but let us not forget that there are plenty of poeple out there with their own projects, and although not publicised, have surmounted the considerable challenges faced in funding and planning their dreams.
 
Hear Hear! The boy done good. Most 14 year-old boys have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, let alone sailing singlehanded acros 3,500nm of ocean!
I've been following the ARC closely this year and seen an awful lot of grown men and experienced sailors looking pretty worried before the start in Las Palmas. I've also seen most of them arrive in St Lucia, grinning from ear to ear with a well deserved sense of pride and achievement.
At 14 just cycling to my next town was an accomplishment worth bragging about and after my first Channel crossing under sail many years later I was equally chuffed.
For those that say his Dad was tailing him all the way therefore that somehow detracts from his achievement are just being mean spirited. Why do you think people do the ARC - to have 229 other boats to fall back on should things go horribly wrong. I did my first transatlantic in the 2001 ARC and I can assure you I still felt pretty pleased with myself, despite having sailed over 50,000nm beforehand.
Furthermore, I have test sailed the Tide 28 in reasonably heavy conditions and found it to be perfectly seaworthy offshore. It is, after all, based upon a well tested Harley Yachts hull with Kevlar reinforced bows and hull area as standard, as is the collision bulkhead and positive buoyancy fore and aft. It also has a deep fin keel with half a ton of lead ballast in a bulb at the bottom and, though it lifts up for winter storage, it is firmly bolted down at sea like any other fixed keel boat. Probably its only failing is its open transom, but this is becoming a trend on many new production yachts - they just stick a helm seat over it to make them feel safe.
Once again - well done Michael!
 
I didn't say that? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif However, accurately observed, more or less /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
All this young lad has done is risked his neck to prove that given the right weather conditions any plastic boat can cross oceans . Watch father now promote his boat as an ocean going craft /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
If it were not a promotional trip a more sea kindly craft would surely have been used . Lets face it given the choice who would have picked that boat for the crossing ?? Not me for starters .
 
Yes congratulations to the lad. However you wonder at this striving for younger and younger. That is a worry.
In recent years 2 different Oz lads were both officially 16 one from Perth, David Dix one from Melbourne (Jessie ?) both did non stop circumnavigations (both in SS34s. David Dix was a little younger but had to be given spare bolts for mast while in S Atlantic.
It all makes the latest 14yo Atlantic crossing a great acheivment for PR.
Tell all the mothers to hide their babies the race is on. olewill
 
achievement etc

as far as i know from pix/blurb, he started sailing gibraltar in boat and stopped off in canaries and cape verdes.

Yep, it's less of an achievement cos he stopped off and cos he was accompanied and cos he had satphone and gps and didn't experience a hurricane and also less because unlike columbus 1492 the route is well known. On the other hand it was more of an achievement than using a nice comfy 50 footer. But these and many other things aren't binary: compared to old days frinstance, driving across the UK is not the adventure it used to be cos there are motoways and reliable cars with satnav, so it was far more of an achievement back in the 1960's and even mopre so in the first few years of motorised transport.

However, in this case, a young sailor satisfied the definition of "solo", and he takes the record of being youngest to cross the Atlantic. By any normal (and quite a few abnormal) standards that is a pretty wizzy achievement, imho.

There *may* be a time where (as today with driving to manchester from london in a modern car) the trip doesn't trigger the same general admiration and news reporting because webcams all around can watch over a toddler who can press a "go across atlantic and dock at antigua" computer button and another "make food" button each day, and then, as with today's solo car travel to manchester it will not be such an achievement. We not yet reached that time, but it is entirely possible that we will. And then, like going to the moon became in the seventies, it will become well, yawn, very dull and samey. Not quite yet though.
 
Re: achievement etc

It's a pretty sure rule in life that if what you say makes someone angry, that probably means you are close to touching an uncomfortable truth.

Yes, I agree with tcm's post. Splendid achievement, full credit.
But it's not really breaking an old record in the accepted sense, more setting out new rules for a different kind of record-breaking in future.
It's a bit like the Blue Riband. There aren't any scheduled passenger service Atlantic liners anymore, so that competition is closed. But there is a new one - to break the record for the powered crossing, in anything motorised that floats.
 
Re: achievement etc

Car journey analogy not really relevant, Bottom line is that while it was a laudable achievemt it was lightly tarnished and tempered by the fact that it was essentially a cruise in company and a boat sales stunt. Seb Clover's effort, although carried out in similar circumstances, was probably more commendable.
 
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