After growing up cruising in the South Pacific with my family, we returned to our home-port in Honolulu Hawai`i when I was 15 years old.
My dream was to keep sailing, so I set my sights on the record for the "World's Youngest Solo Circumnavigation".
I spent summer breaks from high school sailing over ten-thousand miles on yacht deliveries and to raise funding for my circumnavigation. In 1995, exactly one-hundred years after Joshua Slocum's departure (first to solo circumnavigate), I departed. Sixteen months and 27,000 miles later, I became the youngest circumnavigator. The first step of my dream was reality.
In 1997, Bruno Peyron (First to circumnavigate in less than 80 days) arrived in Honolulu fresh from breaking the TransPac Race record. It was part of a global promotional tour for The Race 2000. On Bastille Day, Bruno invited me to sail to Tahiti aboard the world's fastest yacht Explorer. After a number of very fast days aboard the 86ft catamaran, we arrived in French Polynesia - the birth-place of multi-hulls. Bruno is a mentor and one of the most remarkable sailors of our time, truly a sailor of the millinium! A second dream had come true...
The next step of my dream is to sail around the world without stopping and without any outside assistance whatsoever. Records are what justify the commercial partnership for such a voyage. The first circumnavigation was undertaken to enhance my future sailing.
For me, the vision from the beginning has been to find a nice rythm with nature. To sail a conception design that personifies all my experience at sea...not just from the last circle but since my parents first took me out when I was two months old.
The racing and pursuit of records is secondary to my love for the sailing itself. In the great scheme of things, any skipper can win a race - but man will never have the advantage over the mighty sea. We can only strive to go down to the sea showing full respect by bringing all of our experience to bear. It's the ocean I love, not the race...but I think the race results will reflect the sailor who most loves the sea...because to win, you have to finish.
The means to realizing my future voyages is to show a commercial partner my vision. We are all human, any one of us can accomplish the so called 'impossible' if we imagine the possibilities and believe in ourselves!
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