Laura Dekker (; born 20 September 1995) is a Dutch sailor. In 2009, she announced her plan to become the youngest person to

circumnavigate Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magellan Exped ...

the globe single-handed. A Dutch court stepped in, owing to the objections of the local authorities, and prevented Laura from departing while under shared custody of both her parents. In July 2010, a Dutch

family court Family courts were originally created to be a Court of Equity convened to decide matters and make orders in relation to family law, including custody of children, and could disregard certain legal requirements as long as the petitioner/plaintif ...

ended this custody arrangement, and the record-breaking attempt finally began on 21 August 2010. Dekker successfully completed the solo circumnavigation in a 12.4-metre (40 ft) two-masted

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch f ...

named ''Guppy'', arriving in

Simpson Bay Simpson Bay Lagoon (also spelt Simson Bay Lagoon, or referred to simply as The Great Pond) is one of the largest inland lagoons in the West Indies of the Caribbean. It is located on the island of Saint Martin. The border between the French and ...

Sint Maarten Sint Maarten () is a Countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean region of North America. With a population of 58,477 as of June 2023 on an area of , it encompasses ...

, 518 days later at the age of 16.

Early life

Dekker was born in the city of

Whangārei Whangārei () is the northernmost city in New Zealand and the largest settlement of the Northland Region. It is part of the Whangarei District, created in 1989 from the former Whangarei City, Whangarei County and Hikurangi Town councils to admi ...

, 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 dinghy The Optimist is a small, single-handed dinghy sailing, sailing dinghy intended for use by young people up to the age of 15. The Optimist is one of the two most popular sailing dinghies in the world, with over 150,000 boats officially regis ...

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 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 The Wadden Sea ( ; ; or ; ; ; ) is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern continental Europe and the range of low-lying Frisian Islands, forming a shallow body of water with tida ...

, accompanied by her dog Spot. Over the following winter, Dekker searched for her own Hurley 700, and bought one with a loan from her father. This boat was also christened ''Guppy'', and she spent her entire 2008 summer vacation aboard it, cruising around the Netherlands.

2009 trip to England

Over the following school year, she began preparing herself and ''Guppy'' for open-ocean sailing, with the goal of a round-the-world tour. In March, her father told her to gain some experience with the open sea by first sailing to England. This was intended to discourage her; the strong currents, rough weather, and heavy shipping make the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

notoriously difficult for sailboats. Dekker spent the next eight weeks preparing ''Guppy'' for that trip. On the evening of Friday, 1 May, at the beginning of a 12-day school vacation, she sailed away from

Maurik Maurik is a town in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Buren, and lies about 8 km north of Tiel. History The village was first mentioned around 300 as Mannaricio, and since 997 as Maldericke. The etymolo ...

without specifying a destination to her father. She sailed to the coast and arrived in

Maassluis Maassluis () is a town in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality had a population of in and covered of which was water. It received town rights in 1811. History Maassluis was founded circa 1340 as a se ...

Saturday afternoon. Early Sunday morning, she set out across the Channel, but weak winds delayed her arrival until Monday morning. Docking in

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the List of extreme points of the United Kingdom, most easterly UK se ...

, she e-mailed word of her success from a local library. Local authorities requested her father to come and accompany her on her return voyage. Her father responded that she could sail back on her own. Local authorities instead placed her in a

children's home Residential child care communities or children's homes are a type of residential care, which refers to long-term care given to children who cannot stay in their birth family home. There are two different approaches towards residential care: The fam ...

until he came to retrieve her. He returned her to her boat and then flew home. She left England on Monday, 11 May. With a strong wind this time, up to force 7, the return trip was much faster, reaching

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

by the morning of the 12th and arriving home that evening.

Plans for a global circumnavigation

In August 2009, Dekker announced her plan for a two-year solo sailing voyage around the globe in the Dutch national newspaper, ''

Algemeen Dagblad The ''Algemeen Dagblad'' (; ), also known by its initialism ''AD'' () is a Dutch daily newspaper based in Rotterdam. History and profile ''Algemeen Dagblad'' was founded in 1946. The paper is published in tabloid format and is headquartered i ...

''. Her father was in support of her plans. Dekker planned to sail a seagoing

Jeanneau Jeanneau is a French boatyard in Les Herbiers, in the Vendée département, which has produced yachts since 1957. It was founded by Henri Jeanneau, a hardware store owner, who began by producing power boats. Jeanneau specializes in monohulls, ...

Gin Fizz ketch, also named ''Guppy''. The boat was equipped for long-distance sailing and adapted for solo-circumnavigation. The planned route started from Portugal westwards, to cruise the Caribbean and then to go through Panama and past Indonesia. She then planned either to go past Somalia to the Mediterranean, or around Africa, should piracy become a serious concern. Her plan was to make around 26 stops. The original plan called for Dekker to be met at some locations by family, which also would help her along difficult spots such as the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...

. In actuality, for cost reasons, people from home (mostly family members) met her only two times, although she was given some assistance by other leisure sailors she met, for example through the Panama Canal. The plan said she would not be sailing for more than three weeks between stops. However, after Australia, she decided to skip some stops, which meant completing two 6- to 7-week-long legs. An

Iridium Communications Iridium Communications Inc. (formerly Iridium Satellite LLC) is a publicly traded American company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, United States. Iridium operates the Iridium satellite constellation, a system of 80 satellites: 66 are active ...

tracking system onboard allowed the family in the Netherlands to monitor her course closely. She planned to avoid the stormy

Roaring Forties The Roaring Forties are strong westerlies, westerly winds that occur in the Southern Hemisphere, generally between the latitudes of 40th parallel south, 40° and 50th parallel south, 50° south. The strong eastward air currents are caused by ...

, although the South Africa route gave her at least one big storm. Her education was conducted through the Wereldschool (Worldschool), an educational institution that provided her with material for self-learning. From the beginning of her solo circumnavigation in late August 2010, Dekker wrote a weekly column for the ''Algemeen Dagblad'' of Rotterdam. English and German translations of her columns are available.

Government objections

The local authorities at

Wijk bij Duurstede Wijk bij Duurstede () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the central Netherlands. Population centres *Cothen *Langbroek *Wijk bij Duurstede Topography ''Dutch Topographic map of the municipality of Wijk bij Du ...

, her place of residence, objected and the Child Welfare Office became involved. A

judgment was obtained that placed Dekker in shared parental custody with the Council for Child Care who stopped her departure. The shared custody was to last until July 2010, but a successful application by the child protection agency saw that extended until at least August of that year. Dekker's plan and the intervention by the government received extensive international attention. According to Dutch inland shipping regulations, it is prohibited for a captain younger than sixteen years to sail a boat longer than seven meters in Dutch waters; thus Dekker would not be allowed to use the boat for any solo excursions within the Netherlands until 2012. She still did so, with the effect that the police required her father to come and sail the boat home together with her. The circumnavigation, however, would not start in the Netherlands, thus Dutch naval regulations do not apply to her voyage. On 18 December 2009, a member of Dekker's family reported her missing to the police. A farewell letter was left for her father, although her boat remained in the port of Maurik. On 20 December, Dekker was found safely on

. Two days later, she returned to Amsterdam where she was questioned by the police. On 26 December 2009, it was reported that another court in the Netherlands overruled the objections of the social workers and permitted her to begin her circumnavigation in September of the following year when she turned 15. On 27 July 2010, the Dutch court ended supervision of Dekker, and decided it was "up to the girl's parents to decide whether she can make the trip." Dekker reported that she would depart "within two weeks". Dekker later commented about the authorities in an interview, saying "They thought it was dangerous. Well, everywhere is dangerous. They don't sail and they don't know what boats are, and they are scared of them." While in Australia, Dekker gave an interview in which she admitted that she was not doing much schoolwork since she was busy with sailing, maintenance, customs procedures and other tasks related to her journey. This led to press and other commentators suggesting that she had quit school and thrown the school books overboard. She tried to correct this by saying that she had not stopped studying totally and would continue her academic studies after returning to the Netherlands. On 14 October 2011, Dekker was nominated for the

Conny van Rietschoten Cornelis "Conny" van Rietschoten (23 March 1926 – 17 December 2013) was a Dutch yacht skipper who was the only skipper to win the Whitbread Round the World Race twice. Background Born in Rotterdam, Van Rietschoten had been sailing since he ...

Trophy, a very prestigious Dutch sailing award, in the ocean sailing category. Preceding Dekker's journey, the sailing press appeared rather sceptical, but became more positive during the journey, and acclaimed her after the Indian Ocean crossing and the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

passage. General media in countries she visited have often also been impressed, at least on later stages. General media in the Netherlands mostly avoided writing about her during the journey, since the journey went mostly as planned. An exception was the newspaper ''Algemeen Dagblad'' which had a weekly column about her and displayed a standing link on the front web page to a collection of articles about the teenage sailor. However, on 4 January 2012, Dutch and German press started to write much more about her, both about the fact that she soon was expected to finish the circumnavigation, and about the fact that she did not want to return to the Netherlands, but to settle in New Zealand. After the arrival on 21 January 2012, there were articles in newspapers all over the world.

Boat

Dekker used a French-built two-masted

Gin Fizz

, which she named ''Guppy'', same as her earlier boats.

2010–2011 solo circumnavigation

Dekker sailed from

Den Osse Den Osse is a hamlet in the municipality of Schouwen-Duiveland, in Zeeland, Netherlands. It is located on the Grevelingen between Scharendijke and Brouwershaven and is the northernmost place of Zeeland. Den Osse is not a statistical entity but ...

, Netherlands, on 4 August 2010, headed for Portugal. This segment did not constitute part of the solo circumnavigation, as her father was on board to coach her and test the new boat. The published plan was that the solo voyage would commence from

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

. Instead, Dekker and her father sailed to

Portimão Portimão () is a city and a municipality in the district of Faro (district), Faro, in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. The population in 2022 was 63,079 in an area of 182.06 km2. It was formerly known as Vila Nova de Portimão. In ...

, arriving on 15 August. She sailed with others from Portimão to

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

on 18–20 August, because according to Portuguese law, she was too young to be formally qualified to captain her ship (Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory subject to British law, though Dekker made her departure from Gibraltar in secret in order to avoid both the press and any maritime police). 2010–2012 solo circumnavigation progress: *Departed

on 21 August 2010. *Arrived at

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago. With 163,230 inhabi ...

on 25 August. *Stayed in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

for several weeks because of the

Atlantic hurricane season The Atlantic hurricane season is the period in a year, from June 1 through November 30, when Tropical cyclone, tropical or subtropical cyclones are most likely to form in the North Atlantic Ocean. These dates, adopted by convention ...

. *Departed

Gran Canaria Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, a Spain, Spanish archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa. the island had a population of that constitut ...

on 10 November for

Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

. *Commenced Atlantic crossing from Cape Verde to

—a distance of —on 2 December; finished when she reached Simpson Bay Lagoon on 19 December; having encountered calm weather on this leg of her journey, used the engine for two days in order to arrive on time. *Served as crew member for ten days on the tall ship ''

Stad Amsterdam ''Stad Amsterdam'' (''City of Amsterdam'') is a three-masted clipper that was built in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 2000 at the Damen Shipyard. The ship was designed by Gerard Dijkstra who modelled her after the mid-19th century frigate ''Ams ...

'', departing from Sint Maarten on 5 January 2011. *Departed Sint Maarten on 20 January; visited the islands of

Îles des Saintes The Îles des Saintes (; ), also known as Les Saintes (, ), is a group of small islands in the archipelago of Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France. It is part of the Canton of Trois-Rivières and is divided into two communes: Terre- ...

Dominica Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. It is part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of t ...

Bonaire Bonaire is a Caribbean island in the Leeward Antilles, and is a Caribbean Netherlands, special municipality (officially Public body (Netherlands), "public body") of the Netherlands. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west (Windward an ...

and

San Blas Islands The San Blas Islands of Panama is an archipelago comprising approximately 365 islands and cays, of which 49 are inhabited. They lie off the north coast of the Isthmus of Panama, east of the Panama Canal. A part of the ''comarca'' (district) Gun ...

, all located in the Caribbean. *Flew home on 27 February; stayed to 10 March to speak at a boat show and other places, now a figure of considerable media attention in the Netherlands. *Completed the passage of the

on 11 April 2011; visited

Pearl Islands The Pearl Islands (Spanish: Archipiélago de las Perlas or Islas de las Perlas) is a group of 200 or more islands and islets (many tiny and uninhabited) lying about off the Pacific coast of Panama in the Gulf of Panama. Islands The most no ...

thereafter. *Crossed the

Equator The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...

on the evening of 25 April; reached the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands () are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the equator, west of the mainland of South America. They form the Galápagos Province of the Republic of Ecuador, with a population of sli ...

the following day. *Departed the Galápagos Islands on 7 May and arrived at

Hiva Oa With its , Hiva Oa ( Marquesan: Hivaoa) is the second largest island in the Marquesas Islands, in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. Located at 9 45' south latitude and 139 W longitude, it is the largest islan ...

Marquesas Islands The Marquesas Islands ( ; or ' or ' ; Marquesan language, Marquesan: ' (North Marquesan language, North Marquesan) and ' (South Marquesan language, South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcano, volcanic islands in ...

on 25 May, having sailed about in 18 days, the longest leg so far; encountered open sea only, with no islands near the route. *Sailed from Marquesas Islands to

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...

between 1 and 8 June, a journey of ; demanding leg of the journey with shifting winds, many reefs, ships, and little sleep. *Visited Moorea and

Bora Bora Bora Bora (French language, French: ''Bora-Bora''; Tahitian language, Tahitian: ''Pora Pora'') is an island group in the Leeward Islands (Society Islands), Leeward Islands in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific. The Leeward Islands comprise the we ...

, and then sailed the journey to

Vavaʻu Vavau is an island group, consisting of one large island (ʻUtu Vavaʻu) and 40 smaller ones, in Tonga. It is part of Administrative divisions of Tonga, Vavaʻu District, which includes several other individual islands. According to tradition, ...

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

in 12 days, where she arrived 8 July. *Arrived 17 July 2011 at

Suva Suva (, ) is the Capital city, capital and the most populous city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rew ...

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

, having sailed for four days, and on 30 July at

Port Vila Port Vila ( ; ), or simply Vila (), is the capital of Vanuatu and its largest city. It is on the island of Efate, in Shefa Province. The population was 49,034 as of the 2020 census. In 2020, the population of Port Vila formed 16.3% of the ...

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

after having sailed for three days. *Sailed from Vanuatu on 8 August, heading for Darwin, Australia; arrived in Darwin on 25 August after one of the toughest legs of her journey, which included passage through

Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes ( Kalaw Lagaw Ya#Phonology 2, �zen̪ad̪ kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, ...

, filled with reefs, islands and large ships; father visited her in Darwin, their first meeting since she had visited the Netherlands in March 2011; together, undertook a major overhaul of the boat; celebrated Dekker's 16th birthday. *Departed Darwin on 25 September, heading west; published information about this leg of her journey in her blog following about two weeks delay, because of security concerns regarding Indian Ocean pirates. *Sailed to

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

, South Africa, arriving 12 November, after 47 days at sea non-stop; reported wind varying from dead calm to hard wind that often shifted direction; sometimes encountered rough waves (distance Darwin–Durban is ). *Arrived at

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

, South Africa, on 18 November. *Passed

Cape Agulhas Cape Agulhas (; , "Cape of Needles") is a rocky headland in Western Cape, South Africa. It is the geographic southern tip of Africa and the beginning of the traditional dividing line between the Atlantic and Indian oceans according to the In ...

, South Africa, on 26 November, southernmost point on the African continent, and southernmost point of her journey; sailed thereafter a northerly course for the first time on her journey from the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. *Passed the

on 27 November in rough weather; reached

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

the same day; father and journalists and the boats of the

Volvo Ocean Race The Ocean Race is a yacht race around the world, held every three or four years since 1973. Originally named the Whitbread Round the World Race after its initiating sponsor, British brewing company Whitbread, in 2001 it became the Volvo Ocean Rac ...

met her there. *Sailed from Cape Town on 12 December, heading northwest. *Reached the longitude of her unofficial starting point in the Netherlands on 20 December; had already crossed all longitudes in the course of her circumnavigation; faced another for her official completion. *Arrived in Simpson Bay on Sint Maarten on 21 January 2012 at approximately 3 p.m. local time, after a non-stop journey of from Cape Town, thus completing her full

circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first circumnaviga ...

of the world, at the age of 16 years, 123 days.. ''The Globe & Mail (AP)'', 21 January 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2012. *The trip took 518 days or 74 weeks or 1 year, 5 months. ''Maidentrip'' (2013), mostly shot by Dekker and directed by Jillian Schlesinger, is an 82-minute documentary video about this trip.

Later activities

*In March 2013, ''Maidentrip'', a film about Dekker's circumnavigation had its premiere at the

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

Film Festival in the United States. *During the summer of 2013, she took part in the recording (in

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

) of the

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

show ''

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

'', which was broadcast in the Netherlands in August–October 2013. *In autumn 2014, she took part in the Dutch reality show '' Expeditie Poolcirkel'' in north Scandinavia (broadcast 2015), which she won. *In November 2014, Dekker's book ''One Girl, One Dream'' was published. *On 20 February 2015, she obtained a Yachtmaster Ocean Certificate (also becoming the youngest person to do so in the process). *She has been working towards doing long-distance educational sailings with children. She founded Laura Dekker World Sailing Foundation. She obtained a 21 meter long ship (named ''Guppy''). In November 2020 Dekker and a young crew took away from Spain, heading for the Caribbean islands, and back.

''Guppy''s fate

A February 2018 interview with the American Sailing Association announced "Dekker has donated her beloved ''Guppy'', the very boat she did the trip on, to LifeSail." LifeSail is a Los Angeles non-profit organisation that uses sailing as a vehicle to teach life lessons to children. On 20 August 2018, Dekker announced that ''Guppy'' was wrecked on a reef in the Pacific Ocean by LifeSail during its trip to Los Angeles. The boat was a total loss. LifeSail released a public statement in March 2019 with a timeline of events that stated Dekker originally donated ''Guppy'' as a requirement to receive funds from a third party. Those funds would be used for her new boat, ''Guppy XL''. Dekker blames LifeSail and Matt Schulz, alleging they broke their contract by sailing the vessel with inexperienced crew and mooring in unsafe locations. She claimed compensation for the loss of ''Guppy'', as the donation contract with LifeSail specified that in the case of a total loss all insurance compensation would go to her, less any value added by LifeSail.

Personal life

On 28 March 2015, when she was 19, Dekker married Daniel Thielmann, also resident in New Zealand. They have since divorced. She is now in a relationship with boat builder Sander Vogelenzang, with whom she has a son born in 2018. They had a second child in June 2022.

References

External links

Official website of Laura Dekker

Radio interview, 11 minutes, in January 2011

Laura Dekker's boat, the Jeanneau Gin Fizz 37

The latest interview with Laura Dekker, SailingEurope, 2019
* Books by Laura Dekker: ''Een meisje, een droom'' (in Dutch) , ''Ein Mädchen, ein Traum'' (in German) , ''One Girl, One Dream'' (in English) . {{DEFAULTSORT:Dekker, Laura 1995 births Living people Dutch bloggers Dutch sailors Dutch people of German descent Female sailors German bloggers German women bloggers German people of Dutch descent German sailors New Zealand bloggers New Zealand women bloggers New Zealand people of Dutch descent New Zealand people of German descent New Zealand sailors Teenage single-handed circumnavigating sailors Single-handed circumnavigating sailors People from Whangārei Female explorers Dutch women bloggers Dutch children German children New Zealand children Sports world record setters