Jessica Watson
Jessica Watson OAM ( born May 18, 1993 Gold Coast, Queensland) is an Australian sailor. She became internationally known mainly because, as hitherto youngest solo sailor, and circumnavigated the globe without refueling. Jessica Watson reached on 15 May 2010 after almost 23,000 miles traveled ( 43,000 km) and 210 days at sea, three days before her 17th birthday the starting point of their circumnavigation in Sydney Harbour.
Circumnavigation
18 October 2009 Watson started a circumnavigation. On 19 November 2009 they crossed the equator and happened on January 13, 2010 Cape Horn. The Indian Ocean reached Watson on 24 February, when they about 400 nautical miles south of Cape Agulhas left the Atlantic.
Jessica Watson's boat ' Ella's Pink Lady " is an S & S 34 with 10.23 meters long and 3.08 meters wide. This type of boat from the early 1970s is considered to be very seaworthy and was used among others by Jon Sanders, David Dicks and Jesse Martin for their circumnavigation.
The trip went from Sydney to the Line Islands, Cape Horn, the Falkland Islands, Cape Agulhas, South East Cape ( Tasmania ) back to Sydney. Because besides the orbit of earth, at least two crossings of the Equator are required to be officially recognized as a circumnavigation, Watson rounded the just north of the Equator lying island of Kiritimati.
For the circumnavigation of the globe ( 42,596 km ) was estimated a duration of approximately 240 days at a total distance of 23,000 nautical miles. In fact, Watson needed only 210 days, which corresponds to a Durchschnittsetmal of 110 nautical miles.
It U.S. $ 400,000 was collected for the circumnavigation.
15 May 2010 14.00 clock local time they reached the port of Sydney. Whether the desired record the recent one-handed Weltumseglerin is universally recognized without stopover and external assistance, but is still controversial.
Controversy
Criticism of the record attempt was voiced, among others, due to a collision of Watson's boat with the Korean freighter " Silver Yang " just before the start of circumnavigation. So Jessica Watson were doubted sailing skills. Furthermore, it was - just as the Dutch Laura Dekker - by critics as too young.
Founded for the recognition of sailing records World Sailing Speed Record Council ( WSSRC ) complained that the distance traveled by Watson distance is too short for a circumnavigation. The rules of WSRRC require orthodromic distance between waypoints of 21,600 nautical miles (nm ), Watson's route have but less than 20,000 sm amount.
Publications
- Jessica Watson: Solo with Pink Lady. Delius Klasing, 2011 ISBN 978-3-7688-3250-2