Maidentrip
| Laura Dekker | |
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Laura Dekker, at the Hiswa Boat Fair, Amsterdam in 2011
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| Born |
20 September 1995 Whangarei, New Zealand |
| Nationality | Dutch German New Zealander |
| Occupation | Sailor |
| Known for | The youngest person to sail solo around the world, with stops |
| Spouse(s) | Daniël Thielmann (m. 2015) |
| Parent(s) | Dick Dekker Babs Müller |
| Website | www |
Laura Dekker (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈlʌuraː ˈdɛkər]; born 20 September 1995) is a New Zealand born, Dutch sailor. In 2009, she announced her plan to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe single-handed. A Dutch court stepped in, owing to the objections of the local authorities, and prevented Dekker from departing while under shared custody of both her parents. In July 2010, a Dutch family court ended this custody arrangement, and the record-breaking attempt finally began on 21 August 2010. Dekker successfully completed the solo circumnavigation in an 11.5-metre (38 ft) two-masted ketch, arriving in Simpson Bay,Sint Maarten, 518 days later at the age of 16.
Dekker was born in the city of Whangarei, New Zealand, during a seven-year sailing trip by her parents. Her father, Dick Dekker, is Dutch and her mother, Babs Müller, is German. Dekker has Dutch, German, and New Zealand citizenship. Her parents divorced in 2002. She lived with her father after the separation of her parents, and her younger sister Kim went to live with her mother.
Dekker spent the first five years of her life at sea, and sailed often with her father after the family's return to the Netherlands. She has owned several boats, all named Guppy. The first was an Optimist she received for her sixth birthday, and which she promptly learned to sail solo, initially accompanied by her father on a windsurfer.
For her eighth birthday (in 2003), she received the book Maiden Voyage, Tania Aebi's memoir of her round-the-world sailing trip.
In the summer of 2006, after assisting her father in a 24-hour sailing race aboard a friend's Hurley 700, she received permission from the boat's owner to borrow it for personal use, in return for cleaning and maintenance. It was just at the 7 m limit below which Dutch law imposes on captains under the age of 16. Sailing it often, she christened this boat Guppy as well. In the summer of 2007, she took it on a more ambitious 6-week sailing tour of the Wadden Sea, accompanied by her dog Spot.
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Wikipedia