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Did Parents' Sense of 'Specialness' Put Abby Sunderland In Danger?

By Elizabeth C.

IT MAY NOT BE TODAY OR EVEN NEXT YEAR, but the day's coming when Abby Sunderland sobs aloud wondering if her parents loved her or notoriety more.

On Friday, hours after their daughter was discovered alive on her disabled 40-foot boat in the Indian Ocean, Laurence and Marianne Sunderland "offered no apologies” for allowing their 16-year-old daughter to attempt to sail around the world.

"We believe it's a parent's right to decide what their kids are capable of and for our family, we felt it was a good choice for Abby," said Marianne Sunderland.

Dad Laurence told reporters, "If people are looking at age, they're looking at the wrong thing here.

...I've never advocated this for 16-year-olds. I've advocated this for experienced sailors."

Which is to say that he thinks Abby is "special" as the daughter of a shipwright [him] who has been sailing since she was two years old.

Abby set off in Journey to become the youngest sailor to circle the globe nonstop but had to abandon her quest when her boat developed problems.

Yet the idea to let Abby try such a feat seems to indulge their own delusions of specialness. And it also begs the question: Does the fact that she Abby got lost as sea mean she’s no longer special to her father?

Sunderland, a native Aussie, maintains and repairs boats at California's Marina del Rey; his son tackled and succeeded at the same death-defining sea tour at age 17 .

The shipwright who built Abby’s Wild Eyes said it was virtually unsinkable but that the teen wasn’t capable of handling it. “She wasn't physically or mentally strong enough to handle a 40-foot boat in those winter storm conditions," said Jon Sayer of Queensland, Australia.

Said Derrick Fries, a sailing champion and author of Learn to Sail: “She was lucky." Of the ever-younger teens who set out to break records at sea, he said: “It''s only a matter of time until we end up with a tragedy on our hands.”