David Griffiths Dicks, OAM, CitWA, (born 6 October 1978) is an Australian

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. While the term ''sailor'' ...

. He became the youngest person to sail non-stop and solo around the world. In February 1996, at the age of 17, he set out from

Fremantle, Western Australia Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

in his family's 10m S&S 34 sloop named 'Seaflight'. During his 9-month circumnavigation, he faced many challenges such as numerous knockdowns, bad weather, equipment failure, and food poisoning. Because of accepting a bolt to fix his rig near the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; ), commonly referred to as The Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and from Cape Dub ...

, his circumnavigation was not considered unassisted. He returned safely to Fremantle in November 1996 amid great fanfare, including a

ticker-tape parade A ticker-tape parade is a parade event held in an urban setting, characterized by large amounts of shredded paper thrown onto the parade route from the surrounding buildings, creating a celebratory flurry of paper. Originally, actual ticker tap ...

and being given the '

keys Key, Keys, The Key or The Keys may refer to: Common uses * Key (cryptography), a piece of information needed to encode or decode a message * Key (instrument), a component of a musical instrument * Key (lock), a device used to operate a lock * ...

' to

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

City. In 1999 he was awarded the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of then ...

(OAM). David held the youngest (assisted) solo circumnavigation record for 13 years, from 1996 to 2009. By some accounts he still holds the unofficial record for the youngest solo ''non-stop'' assisted circumnavigation.

Jessica Watson Jessica Watson (born 18 May 1993) is an Australian sailor who was awarded the Order of Australia Medal after attempting a solo circumnavigation at the age of 16. Although she circled the planet, she did it in a narrow range of latitudes that re ...

captured the unofficial youngest age record in May 2010 with an unassisted solo circumnavigation, but her course did not meet the minimum

orthodromic An orthodromic impulse runs along an axon in its anterograde direction, away from the soma (cell body). In the heart, orthodromic may also refer to an impulse going in the correct direction from the dendrites to axon terminal (from the atria to ...

distance requirement of 21,600 nautical miles set by the WSSRC.The

World Sailing Speed Record Council The World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) was founded in 1972, initially to ratify records at the inaugural Weymouth Speed Week held every year since in Portland Harbor.The WSSRC is the body authorized by the World Sailing (formerly Internat ...

no longer accepts records claimed by virtue of being the youngest person to complete the voyage.

Jesse Martin Jesse Martin, OAM (born 26 August 1981), is a German-Australian sailor who in 1999, at age 18, became the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo, non-stop and unassisted, Martin's journey in the S&S 34 sloop ''Lionheart-Mistral'' ...

completed a solo non-stop unassisted circumnavigation in 1999, he was 24 days older than Dicks at the completion of Dicks' voyage.

References

1978 births Living people Australian sailors People from Perth, Western Australia Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Teenage single-handed circumnavigating sailors Single-handed circumnavigating sailors {{Australia-bio-stub

See also

References