2 years, 7 months ago
How many people a year sail around the world?
How common is sailing around the world becoming?
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M$1 Answer
Despite what you may think, guessing on the hundred of thousand sailing vessels gathered at hundred of ports and yachting marinas around the world, the true number of people embarking on a personal (or group) sailing attempt around the world are not that many.
One comparison: just to sail from New York to Bermuda requires a lot of preparation to fit the sailboat, to buy the food for the trip, get the gas, get the permits, find a gap on your working schedule, chose the perfect sail weather conditions, take some money and find a travel partner willing to help, share expenses or take on the working load just to get a free ride into the tropics.
True annual circumnavigators are a few breed that still need to plan their global voyages with many years in advance. To calculate how many circumnavigate the world in a year is a hard thing to do, since not all the attempts are announced, most are not prepare to last a few weeks but instead years that may turn into a whole decade of sea travel. There are families or couples who decide to cut their jobs, put their lives on hold for various years in order to immerse themselves into a world sailing adventure that will take several years, with no schedule and no fixed departing or arriving dates.
The first person to sail around the world alone was Joshua Slocum, an American "Blue Nose", from 1895 to 1898, three full years. The second man did it 25 years later; it was another American, Harry Pidgeon, from 1921 to 1925, four complete years of sailing.
Between 1973 and 1974, just four sailors went around the world alone. In 1987, seven sailors did it. In 1999, twelve sailors finished the round the world attempt. In 2004, fourteen sailors completed the circumnavigation. The number of sailors attempting an annual circumnavigation are counted down to a dozen. Here world around races are not contabilized because the sheer number of participants are competing, not planning a true and genuine round the world attempt.
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M$
Which book? Joshua Slocum´s? "Sailing Alone Around the World"
It’s a complete guide on how to circumnavigate the globe. Besides, he is regarded as the best Sailor that has ever lived. His passage between the mouth of the Torres Strait in northern Australia to Keeling Island, in the Cocos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, is the best course leg that has ever been accomplished by any sailor.
2.900 miles of pure masterpiece, straight to the main beach on Keeling Island (which is no more than 1 meter high above the sea level, if you made a 1° wrong calculation you can missed it by 50 miles). It took him 23 days of sailing and he only touched the helm 3 times to make minor corrections during all that time. In an age without GPS, LORAN, Satellite communications, radars, sonars or computer stellar guidance, Slocum just did it with his vast knowledge on tides, wind currents, moon phases, Stellar readings or cartographic algorithms.
Were you able to find the 19 year old girl, who sailed around the world in two years?
Was her voyage considered a complete journey around the world?
Jessica Watson, tries to be the youngest person sailing around the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-0Zi2k8qKUNo I havent find this 19 year olg girl, there must be some record of her somewhere. Still, there is this young sailor, Jessica Watson; she is 16 years old and this week she will become the youngest person to sail solo and unassisted around the world.
According to ""www.congoo.com"":
---Quote---
Aussie Teen Sailor Starts Round-The-World Bid
WPBF - 10/19/2009
SYDNEY -- A 16-year-old Australian steered her bright pink yacht out of Sydney Harbor on Sunday to start her bid to become the youngest person to sail solo and unassisted around the world. Jessica Watson's plan to make a 23,600-mile (38,000-kilometer) journey through some of the world's most treacherous waters.
---/Quote---
But you should consider the fact that since the 70´s many young sailors often age 17 or 18 have attempted and succeeded in circumnavigation the globe alone. The record is currently held by David Dicks, an Australian yachtsman. He set sail for the round-the-world journey from Western Australia in 1996 at age 17.
Sailing the Southern Sea.
Most serious circumnavigations today include the passage of the Cape of Horn in Southamerica, the Cape of Good Hope in Southafrica, Cape Leeuwin and South East Cape in Australia and South West Cape in New Zealand. These are the "Five Capes" to be sailed in order to beat the circumnavigation world record.
Most world attempts don´t require the passage thru the "Five Capes", they are only important for the competing record breakers like the ones in the Volvo Ocean Race, the Vendee Global or the BT Global Challenge, not the relaxed family cruise. By going south to cross the capes, sailors also benefit on the open passage of the continuous stretch of water, the Southern Sea (or Antarctic Ocean) offer to them, literally facilitating the "round the world" sense of accomplishment between the 40° thru 60° degrees south latitude, where the circumference of the Earth is much shorter.
So, instead sailing the whole 42.000 kilometers of the Earth circling, they shorten to something like 32.000 kilometers. That is why, sailor attempts are required to cross the equator twice in order to validate the round the world try. This way the sailor is "forced" to start in the Northern Hemisphere from a point where he or she must spent an important leg of the trip trying to reach the "Roaring Forties", the "Furious Fifties" or the "Shrieking Sixties" winds down in the Southern Ocean.
The Roaring Forties or the Furious Fifties, also known as the Brouwer route, were important latitude winds during the age of commercial sailing with the Clippers between Europe and Australia, New Zealand and the Far East.
The Antarctic Ocean is the only one that flows uninterrupted around the world, not blocked by any continent. Between the 40° and 55° degrees one of the strongest wind on Earth blows from the west.
Take a look at the rough weather condition the sailboats faced during the BT Global Challenge 2000/2001 in the Southern Ocean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXuzy0k9mZQ
Links:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f2/16-year-old-planning-on-sailing-around-the-world-alone-15650.html
http://www.congoo.com/news/2009October18/Teen-sail-solo-world-voyage
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugientes_Cuarentas
http://belenos.wordpress.com/2007/08/17/12/