Dutch delay 13-year-old sailor's worldwide trip

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-29 17:50

They acknowledged he had tried to stop the trip and then to make it as safe as possible.

"This case is about whether the government ... can restrict the broad freedom parents have in bringing up and caring for their children," said presiding judge M. Oostendorp.

"The court does not believe (Laura's father) can be ... accused of serious neglect," she added.

But Prof. Micha de Winter, a child psychologist at Utrecht University, warned that Laura's parents are underestimating the impact of two years alone at sea on a 13-year-old girl as she matures physically and emotionally.

He said the court had taken a "wise decision" in ordering a psychologist's report.

"It's a big risk and an experiment with a child in which you don't know what the result could be," he said.

Richard Bakker, spokesman for the Council for Child Protection, welcomed the ruling.

"We are satisfied with this decision," he said, appealing to the father "to cooperate with the investigation and ensure Laura's safety."

Laura's father, Dick Dekker, was in court for Friday's decision but said nothing to a scrum of reporters following the case. He is divorced from Laura's German mother, who has made no public comment.

Laura was born on a boat in New Zealand and spent the first four years of her life sailing around the world with her parents. She also spends her holidays sailing off the Dutch coast. In May, British authorities briefly detained her after she arrived alone in the eastern port of Lowestoft and said she planned to sail home alone, De Lange said.

Psychologist De Winter, who is not involved in the case, said children need parents and peers around them as they mature.

Authorities "have to look at the development risks for the child," he told The Associated Press.

Perham sailed into record books as the world's youngest round-the-world solo sailor by covering 28,000 miles (45,000 kilometers) in just nine months before crossing the finish line off the coast of Cornwall, in southwestern England, on Thursday. A celebration was planned for his arrival Saturday in Portsmouth, England.

Perham is a few months younger than Zac Sunderland, from Thousand Oaks, California, who claimed the youngest solo crown in July when he completed a similar trip in 13 months.

Perham's boat, a 50-foot (15-meter) racing yacht called Totallymoney.com in honor of his sponsor, is much larger than Laura's. But he also had significant seafaring adventures at a tender age.

"Thirteen is a young, young age," he said Thursday. "But then I sailed across the Atlantic on my own when I was 14 and if I could do that when I was 14 then in theory she could do it when she was 13. But, yes, for me age is only a number."

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