But Mom, he got to sail around the world!

[Machine Head]

Moving away from the current discussion for a moment..

The first solo, non-stop, round-the-world race was in 1968.

Donald Crowhurst was one of nine who entered the race:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Crowhurst

The current events just made me think of this sad story.

Carry on.

 

[Sic semper tyrannis]

I certainly wouldn't let my kid sail around the world. My theoretical kid. But at the same time, having grown up in a farming community, and having known kids who died while operating tractors or got caught in grain bins, I don't think you can just say the parents are being reckless and ridiculous. Farm accidents happen all the time. Parents know this. Yet they have their kids out there working on the farm, basically sending them into a situation where there's a chance they could die. Does that mean they should be arrested for endangerment? Obviously not.

Again, I think these types of events are fairly dumb - these kids aren't exactly Charles Lindbergh - but I don't think it's black and white.

I think the difference lies within the reason/risk ratio. A farm kid working on a farm is likely doing so because that's how the family earns its living, and the percentage of accidents — I would think, tho I don't have the stats to back it up — are miniscule. Our sailor was doing it for nothing other than vanity, either hers or shipbuilding dad's, and sailing into seas that regularly claim lives. Major risk, no reason.

EDIT: BTW, she ain't out of the woods yet. She's got a day until the boats arrive, and she's still being thrown around 30-foot seas in a dismasted boat. Hope all of this isn't premature jocularity.

The way that boat is built, it's practically unsinkable as things stand now. (And yes, I'm aware of the historic folly of that statement.)
But it's keel is still attached and it's a self-righting boat. She could do 360 degrees a few times and be all right.
I'm glad she's alive, and I admire her for getting as far as she did. That part of the world has knocked a few boats down, 16 years or not.
And I get Spirited's argument, but my response would be there are exceptions to every rule. Not all 16-year-old's could do what she tried to do, but I don't think she (or her brother, who sailed around the world at 17) are your average kids.

 

[Care Bear]

Better get your girlfriend in here to back you up in case you didn't.

I thought she drowned. /crossthread

 

[old_tony]

I'd be willing to bet that many, many more kids died last year playing high school football.

And this continues as the stupidest thread in the history of message boards.

Your presence takes it to another level.

I'd explain percentages to him but I'm sure that would be a waste of my time.

 

[mb]

Oh, and if the one expert on page 6 wasn't enough, from the AP story that just moved ...

"It's not something that a 16-year-old should be able to decide, whether they're capable of doing it," said Michael Kalin, junior director of San Francisco's St. Francis Yacht Club. "It's potentially irresponsible for the parents to put their daughter in such an unbelievable circumstance."

"In Abby's case she was lucky," said Derrick Fries, a world sailing champion and author of the standard instruction manual "Learn to Sail." "It's only a matter of time until we end up with a tragedy on our hands. ... Never would I allow my 16-year-old son to even attempt it," he said. "It's almost a death sentence."

University of Southern California sociologist Julie Albright attributes the rush to perform such feats of skill and endurance at least in part to parents pushing their kids to excel beyond all expectations.
"These kids are raised with the notion that every kid gets a trophy and every kid is more intelligent and better than all the others," said Albright, who is also a veteran sailor and former commodore of Southern California's South Bay Yacht Racing Club.
"I have sailed boats since I was a kid and raced boats as an adult and the kind of conditions Abby is in right now, as an experienced sailor, I wouldn't set foot in," she said.

 

[RickStain]

Now that I'm a lot more impressed with. Someone needs to step in and talk to these parents.

 

[Azrael]

I'd be willing to bet that many, many more kids died last year playing high school football.

And this continues as the stupidest thread in the history of message boards.

Your presence takes it to another level.

I'd explain percentages to him but I'm sure that would be a waste of my time.

! was making a point about the persistence of risk - not risk spread across a large statistical sample, you jackass.

 

[Cosmo]

Oh, and if the one expert on page 6 wasn't enough, from the AP story that just moved ...

"It's not something that a 16-year-old should be able to decide, whether they're capable of doing it," said Michael Kalin, junior director of San Francisco's St. Francis Yacht Club. "It's potentially irresponsible for the parents to put their daughter in such an unbelievable circumstance."

"In Abby's case she was lucky," said Derrick Fries, a world sailing champion and author of the standard instruction manual "Learn to Sail." "It's only a matter of time until we end up with a tragedy on our hands. ... Never would I allow my 16-year-old son to even attempt it," he said. "It's almost a death sentence."

University of Southern California sociologist Julie Albright attributes the rush to perform such feats of skill and endurance at least in part to parents pushing their kids to excel beyond all expectations.
"These kids are raised with the notion that every kid gets a trophy and every kid is more intelligent and better than all the others," said Albright, who is also a veteran sailor and former commodore of Southern California's South Bay Yacht Racing Club.
"I have sailed boats since I was a kid and raced boats as an adult and the kind of conditions Abby is in right now, as an experienced sailor, I wouldn't set foot in," she said.

Good looks, mb.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

If her brother completed the trip and someone else just broke the record and she's surviving, how is it a death sentence?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Better get your girlfriend in here to back you up in case you didn't.

I thought she drowned. /crossthread

Either that, or struck by lightning on a mountaintop as he was about to propose /also a crossthread.

 

[WriteThinking]

Of course there is potential for death or some other disaster. She's in the middle of the ocean.

It is a risk that is inherent in the sport, just like there is potentially deadly trouble in any outdoorsy activity or extreme sport. If you're going to do it at all, that risk cannot be completely eliminated. But the Sunderlands -- Abby included -- knew and understood those risks, and obviously, they had an idea how to prepare for and handle them.

There would be the same potential for death or disaster even if the sailor was an adult. And, in terms of sailing, the Sunderland kids have proven that they are at least the equal of most adults -- even older, expert ones.

The only thing making this story different than if an adult tried it is the fact that the sailor is, chronologically, a kid. She apparently is really no kid in this situation, though, if she not only tried it but also rose to the task when trouble arose and handled things as well as any other sailor would have done.

Now, she has, or will, no doubt, learn, grow and mature even more beyond her years -- even her sailing years -- as a result of this experience.

To continue to refer to these teens as if they're just your average everyday kids does nothing but denigrate them and treats them like something that they obviously are not.

 

[BTExpress]

And you can't win your argument with BTE. Talk of young people and death doesn't faze him.

Lots of children died of starvation today.

Lots more were murdered.

Lots more simply died of neglect.

Why haven't you commented on them today?