Teen Solo Sailors Zac and Mike: Seeking Records

6:47 AM Sun 23 Nov 2008 GMT

'Zac' .

Not one but two sixteen-year-olds are sailing solo round the world, on routes that will keep the with the wind behind them most of the way, but there the comparison ends.

One is in a chartered high-tech 50 ft Open racing yacht, called appropriately, TotallyMoney, a yacht with a fine racing record already, the other an Islander 36, called, also appropriately, Intrepid, which he purchased with his own savings.

One is an Englishman, Michael Perham, the other an American, Zac Sunderland.

Michael, with his fast racing

Mike - .. .

surfboard of a boat, is trying to be the youngest sailor to sail alone and unassisted and non-stop around the world. Zac, on the other hand is taking his time, doing running repairs in the ports he stops in. He is trying to be merely the youngest to complete a round the world passage.

Michael is travelling west to east, heading for the Southern Ocean, and will pass below both the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn. Zac is travelling east to west, taking the route below South Africa, but will travel through the Panama Canal to reach his home in California.

Michael, who has just left Portsmouth in England and is currently sailing off the coast of Portugal, is hoping to complete his trip in May. Zac, who left Marina del Rey in California five months ago, is half way round the world, currently in Port Louis Mauritius, may not arrive home until June.

For the competitively minded, as Michael is 108 days younger than Zac, it looks as though Zac might merelyend up as the youngest American to sail round the world. Sacr? bleu! Never mind, Zac, what a seaman you will be, and what experiences you will have had in the countries you will visit.

At the moment, Zac is suffering from the flu in Mauritius while working feverishly to repair his boat, and is waiting for a new sail so he can begin his 1,500-mile sail to Durban, South Africa. So far, on his way across the Indian Ocean, he has had a broken boom, a broken tiller, a torn headsail, and the forestay parted. Nothing daunted, he jury-rigged all as he went. The leg he is about to undertake is a notoriously bumpy sail, which has caused many a seasoned sailor to quake in their Sperries.

At the same time, Mike, in his first week of sailing, is having technical problems with his generator (meaning it doesn't work) and his autopilot (meaning that it only works sometimes). Unable to stop, like Zac, for fear of losing his 'non-stop' category, he has pulled back the speed and is spending large amounts of time on the telephone getting advice from experts at home.

Sail-World Cruising will be following the fortunes of both young sailors, although for the enthusiastic, both have websites, which you can visit by clicking Michaeland Zac

by Pete Thomas, Los Angeles Times/Sail-World