An Australian teenager’s bid to become the youngest solo round-the-world sailor suffered a setback when she crashed just hours into a preliminary voyage on Wednesday.
Jessica Watson, 16, was on a 10-day test journey when she hit a 63 000-tonne freighter in a busy shipping lane off Queensland state, snapping her pink yacht’s mast and damaging its rigging and hull.
But Watson vowed the incident would not stop her attempt to become the youngest person to sail non-stop around the world, solo and unassisted, scheduled to start this month.
”The whole incident gives me confidence — wow, I can actually handle this,” she said. ”It could have happened to anyone … I’m
unlucky I suppose, but you also learn from it.”
Transport safety officials launched an investigation the incident, which came at about 2:30 am despite Watson making radio contact with the ship’s crew.
Investigator Michael Squires said Watson was ”extremely fortunate” to have escaped the collision so lightly.
”A ship of that size which is large and fully loaded tends not to be very forgiving in the case of a collision with a small fibreglass boat,” said transport investigator Michael Squires.
”The fact that the vessel floated is extremely fortunate for the young lady on the boat.”
Preliminary inquiries suggested both ships had seen one another, and had been travelling at normal speed, he added.
Watson said that ”all things considered the boat did come up well.”
”The big thing for me is I came through the whole thing feeling confident … it was a pretty scary incident.”
Watson, who has been sailing since she was eight, hopes to surpass fellow Australian Jesse Martin’s feat in completing the journey aged 18 in 1999.
Briton Mike Perham, 17, last month made an unsuccessful bid for Martin’s record, after problems with his boat’s rudder and other hitches forced him to pull into port three times.
He crossed the finish line after 156 days at sea, becoming the youngest person to sail solo around the world with assistance.
Last month a Dutch court ruled 13-year-old Laura Dekkers could not embark on a solo round-the-world voyage and placed her in the care of social services. — Sapa-AFP