A year and a day after she set out to sail single-handed around the globe,the 16 years old Laura Dekker finished her 27,000 mile voyage on Saturday 21st January 2012 at night by reaching the Island of Sint Maarten and became the youngest sailor ever who sailed around the globe.
She has managed to cut six months off the unofficial record set in 2010 by Australian teenager Jessica Watson, who was days away from her 17th birthday when she completed her own non-stop voyage.
Dozens of people jumped and cheered as Laura stepped aboard a dock in St. Maarten and waved.
"There were moments where I was like, 'What the hell am I doing out here?,' but I never wanted to stop," she told reporters.
"It's a dream, and I wanted to do it."
MiniCat team is very proud to have been sponsoring this brave young sailor on her fantastic trip around the world and we hope that she will still be using her MiniCat 310 Sport which was on the board of her yacht Guppy for the most of her voyage and which she has used frequently on her stops in various places.
We have had emails from many of you reporting seeing her playing around with our great inflatable catamaran during the stops she made on her journey and we thank to all of you who purchased a boat from us and helped sponsoring Laura Dekker on her trip. Well done Laura and well done all of you who supported her on the way!!
To view photos of her arrival at the Island of Sint Maarten click here.
Here are some links from the world press about her achievment:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/netherlands/9029662/
Teenage-sailor-Laura-Dekker-becomes-youngest-to-circumnavigate-the-globe.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/laura-dekker
http://www.sail-world.com/UK/Solo-sailing-teen-Laura-Dekker-did-not-tear-down-her-Dutch-flag/92933
It has been about two months now since we first talked to Laura Dekker. Since then a lot of things happened to her and to us. Laura continues on her trip around the world and is going from one adventure to another. While in Panama she received her customised MiniCat sent by us and immediately sailed it in the waters there. She is loving it as you can see from the photos. Meanwhile we have been busy selling MiniCats all around the world and with each sold through our website she gets 100 EURO towards her trip. This is a great way of sponsorship and a great possibility for you to participate on it. Follow our website or Laura's directly to see her progress.
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Laura Dekker - the youngest person trying to sail around the world has by some lucky chance while on her break in Caribbean come across MiniCat.
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From the comments on her website it seemed that she really enjoyed the experience of sailing our inflatable catamaran. And so we decided the it would be great if she had MINICAT on board of Guppy and promoted it to the thousands of visitors of her website.
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We had a deal and now she is a proud owner of MiniCat SPORT in Red with customised sail and MiniCat Worldwide is sponsoring her. We donate 100 EURO from every boat we sell through our website toward Laura's magnificent trip around the world. If you wish to be a part of this fantastic relationship buy your MiniCat now and sponsor Laura Dekker.
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Here is some of what she said about MiniCat in her weblog on the 14.3.2011:
- "Not long ago, I wrote that I sailed with an inflatable mini-catamaran with my sister. Due to some coincidences, I will be the owner of my very own mini-catamaran soon, and then I will enjoy speeding around even when lying at anchor. Also I will be getting 100 EURO for each Minicat sold through me! Sooo... I will do a little bit of advertising: It sails really well and it is very fast. It is easy to assemble and the boat is very well thought out so you do not need much storage space if you are not living near to the sea. It can be carried along in one big bag. Usually advertisements are very much exaggerated but this one really says it like it is.I have seen and sailed numerous inflatable catamarans and this one really stands above them all." Laura Dekker
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