Jessica Watson and the image of a hardy sailor

10:18 PM Sat 15 May 2010 GMT

'A delighted Jessica Watson' .

She looks too slender to put on a winch, not strong enough to pull in a spinnaker, not old enough to put on the wheel, and too frail for an ocean journey. If Jessica Watson walked down the wharf at any yacht club looking for a sail in a Saturday afternoon race, it's likely that most skippers would smile indulgently and tell her to come back next year. The sixteen-year-old teenager has just destroyed forever the image of what makes a hardy sailor. While the sailing fraternity have been overwhelmingly in admiration of her sailing skills, the non-sailing population of ...

Click here for full story.

by Nancy Knudsen