At age 16, a Southern California teen hopes to be the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe.
Born to a shipwright father, Zac Sunderland of Marina del Rey has spent the majority of his short life on the water. His first home was a 55 Tradewind, which was used to log more than 15,000 ocean miles on family cruises of Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Mexico.
He will be taking his years of experience and training to accomplish a personal dream: to be the youngest person to circumnavigate the world solo. Sunderland looks to take that record from Australian yachtsman David Dicks, who is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as completing the feat in 1996 at age 18.
The home schooled student purchased an Islander 36, which has gone through a major upgrade in preparation for the trip. New, heavy-duty running and standing rigging has been installed, and a custom fiberglass hard dodger was created for added protection. An estimated $40,000 has been spent on initial repairs and upgrades, and the family projects the remainder of preparations and the trip will cost $200,000.
The Sunderlands hope to meet this financial demand with the help of corporate and private sponsorship. So far, 10 companies have come forward to help in this record-breaking cruise, which is project to set sail the beginning of this summer.
News has also surfaced that Sunderland may not be alone in his chase for the record. Josh Clark, another 16-year-old, of Panama has also expressed interest in accomplishing a solo circumnavigation in his rebuilt Cal 32.
-Chris Paoli
This article first appeared in the April 2008 issue of The Log Newspaper. All or parts of the information contained in this article might be outdated. |
