Sailing Alone ~ Zac Sunderland will become the youngest ever person to do so, if he succeeds

A teenager is looking to snatch the record of the youngest person to sail solo around the world set by an Australian 12 years ago.

On Saturday, when most people his age were settling into summer break, 16-year-old Zac Sunderland of Thousand Oaks, California, embarked in the afternoon in his 36-foot sailboat Intrepid in his attempt to circumnavigate the world.


A crowd of about 200 and a Coast Guard helicopter saw him off yesterday.

“There was a stiff breeze. But after Zac got settled, he was cruising comfortably,” Sunderland’s mother, Marianne Sunderland, wrote in a post on his website, www.zacsunderland.com. “He has a lot to do in the next days; stowing, organising and finding everything that was stowed and organised for him!”

If Sunderland completes the trip, he would become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo.

According to Guinness World Records, the youngest to pull off the feat is Australian David Dicks, who circled the globe at 18 in 1996.

Sunderland’s plan, which will inevitably go through many changes, is to complete his voyage in 11 months and return to California in April, when he will be 17.