Jamie Walker
DESPITE her heroics at sea, teenage solo sailor Jessica Watson is set to be denied formal recognition of being the youngest to circumnavigate the globe alone and unassisted.
As the 16-year-old entered the home stretch of her epic journey, battling heavy seas approaching Bass Strait, it was revealed yesterday she was too young and had not travelled far enough to seize the official world record.
Her managers, who are running a slick and potentially lucrative public relations campaign ahead of her expected arrival in Sydney Harbour on Sunday week, conceded that Watson would not meet the "technical" requirements.
Website Sail-World.com blew the whistle when it detailed how she had failed to venture far enough into the northern hemisphere to wrest the solo-sailing record from Perth's Jesse Martin, who clinched it in 1999 as an 18-year-old.
"She just jinked above the Equator in the middle of the Pacific and she actually needed to go up about another 1500km . . . to be in the same ballpark," said Sail-World.com editor Rob Kothe.
A statement on Watson's website insisted the World Sailing Speed Record Council would not, in any case, accept the achievements of sailors aged under 18 and the young Queenslander had never intended to seek recognition from the body.
"She has, however, always wanted to achieve her goal of sailing around the world non-stop, solo and unassisted before her 17th birthday and therefore be the youngest person in the world to have done so," the post said.
Her manager, Andrew Fraser, told Melbourne radio 3AW that Watson and her family had been upfront from the start about the route and her ineligibility for the formal world record.
"Technically, Jesse Martin's record will never be beaten," Mr Fraser said.
Watson yesterday marked her 200th day at sea, during which she has braved some of the wildest weather imaginable and repeated knockdowns of her specially kitted-out yacht.
While her family and backers are milking the publicity for all it's worth -- to the extent of co-ordinating her arrival time in Sydney with media sponsors -- yachties say her feat is genuine and deserves to be celebrated.
The Australian
