With the Dutch child protection agencies declaring her trip too dangerous she and her eight-metre yacht Guppy will be confined to dock.

A devastating blow for the teenager who lives her life for sailing.

“My parents have sailed around the world, they know what can happen and that it’s not always fun, but because I want to do it so much they agreed and supported me. They’ve taken good care of me for 13 years so I don’t why people suddenly think they are not doing a good job,” Laura told Dutch TV earlier this week.

She wasn’t at the hearing that torpedoed her hopes on Friday – advised to stay away as the constant media pressure was taking its toll, she, of course, spent the day sailing instead.

Born on board

But it’s not as if she needed to prove her commitment to the sport.
Laura was even born on a boat – in New Zealand – and when she was just six-years-old she had already mastered the control over her single-handed Optimist dinghy and was criss-crossing lakes back in the Netherlands.

Aged ten she moved up to a seven metre boat and was honing her skills in the waters of Friesland and here she encountered her first problems with the outside world with lock-operators not always willing to allow passage to such a young girl in charge of a boat on her own.

Reportedly there are no legal obstacles there to minors embarking on lengthy sea journeys, although children in New Zealand, too, are required to attend school.

But emigration does not seem to offer a way out. The New Zealand authorities told Dutch daily de Volkskrant on Friday that Laura Dekker could expect to be treated by New Zealand's child protection bodies the same way as in the Netherlands.

The deputy chief executive of the New Zealand Child, Youth and Family agency Ray Smith said he did not think it was sensible for a 13-year-old to sail solo around the world. "I think most people would share that view,” he told the New Zealand Herald.

For the time being then it looks as though all avenues have been exhausted and Laura will have to join her 13-year-old Dutch counterparts returning to school after the summer break.

 Andy Clark
 Radio Netherlands