Teen becomes youngest to sail around the world

By Scott Thompson;

A Southern California teenager has serious bragging rights: After docking back in his home state late Thursday morning, Zac Sunderland, 17, can claim to be the youngest person to sail around the world alone.

Sunderland sails into Marina del Rey, California, on Thursday.
3 of 3 Sunderland was greeted with thunderous applause and congratulations as he arrived at Marina del Rey in his 36-foot sailboat.

"It's kind of crazy to have it done now because, I mean, for the past year I've been just fighting for the next ocean, fighting to get back. And now I'm back so it's amazing," he said.

The teen acknowledged the 27,500-mile voyage wasn't easy. He told CNN that pirates off the coast of Indonesia gave him quite a scare.

"[I] had a boat circle in and ended up calling in the coast watch and they chased them off but, yeah, [I] lucked out there! About an hour and a half of hell."

Severe storms also were a problem, he said.

Sunderland's Web site says he bought the boat with his own money.

His parents had hoped he would find something that would spark a fire in him, a passion that would direct him away from all the negative and harmful influences that are so prevalent in society, but even they were stunned by the scope of his dreams and desires, it says. Watch Sunderland give advice to fellow teens »

He was 16 when he left Marina del Rey on June 14, 2008, aboard his boat, Intrepid. Solitude and exhaustion were just a couple of factors that faced him each day.

"The hardest constantly was the tiredness," he said. "I mean, you get over the loneliness, but tiredness, it's an ongoing thing. Half the time I haven't slept in 48 hours and it's just hard to get enough rest."

Sunderland said he made some good contacts along the way.



"It's interesting just thinking back to the different places in the world because I have so many friends in different parts of the world that are like family, you know, and all these different experiences," he said.

"It's an amazing year. It seems like yesterday that I was here but in other ways it seems like a hundred years."

So what's next? "Yeah, I don't know, just go chill with my friends," he said. "Go skate. Go do something normal for a change, you know."

4th of July C.Y.C BBQ Lake Calhoun

2nd Keelboat Race Saturday July 11

Last Saturday, July 11 at 11am, we had our second planned Keelboat race of the season and 5 boats lined up for the start. The weather was fine with some overcast and with winds from 5 to 10 knots with gusts of 15.

After the signal Brian and Rick took off with a perfect start with Henk and Rodger trailing behind where after each took their course and planned the tack to the first buoy. Nabil entered the race a little late but we where all happy to see that he made it.
We all sailed close together and Henk and Wenona took the lead but after rounding the second buoy Rick and his helmsman from the Dominican Republic who brought some Caribbean flavour to the race took over the lead and ended the race at the first place with Henk second and Brian and Alfredo passed the finish line third and Rodger tried to catch up.

We thank Rich, the judge of the race, and Martin the assistant, for their time and imput.

All in all we had a fun race and we hope we can count next race on more participants.

See you all next Race.



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First CYC Keelboat race ever on lake Calhoun.

Last Saturday, the 20th of June, the first official C.Y.C Keelboat race took place after last week trail run. We are happy to annouce that we counted 9 boats in the race ans after a precision start we all made it whith Rich and his doughter on their Montgomer 17 as the number one boat passing the finish line. with Henk and Wenona on her stern seccond.

Saturday, June 27, the weather looked not that promising with in the forecast some rain and thunderstorms with winds up to 25 knots. The course was set by Tom our CYC 2009 Commodore and judge, with Martin who assisted to bring us to our boats. We all set course and where happy to see Nate and his children at the start line.

After the start signal at approx 11:20am Nate took of as a rocket with Henk on his port and Rick at his starboard site and we all tried to keep pass with his fast boat. And he finished first, Henk and Wenona second, Chris and Rich fought for the third and fourth place while Brian and Alberto fought their boat more than the wind became 5th

It was a great race where seamanship and friendship sailed hand in hand.

See you for the next race July 11 at 11am