Lenny's blog

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Laura Dekker's desire to try sailing around the world. Everybody seems to have some opinion on this matter, from the media to social services to the courts.

I believe that the people who are best suited to judge whether Laura is ready are Laura and her parents. It is simply wrong for anyone else to sit in judgment of her capabilities and stop her from reaching for her dreams.

Does anyone remember William F Buckley ripping into Jim Dickson for attempting to sail across the Atlantic?

The soap opera that is the Americas Cup takes a turn even more bizarre today, as Alinghi today announced the venue as Ras-Al-Khaimah in the UAE. In case you have never heard of this place before, check the map below:

I recently put up a poll on the homepage to see what readers thought of the current situation with the America's Cup. The results are I think telling, with 59% of readers saying that the America's Cup has become bad for the sport. Granted this is a small sample size, but 20 years ago I would be surprised if 10% of people felt this way.

When I was a teenager, I spent a summer teaching sailing to the blind. This was 35 years ago, and at the time was a fairly revolutionary idea. Conventional wisdom says to steer anything, you need to be able to see. My experience that summer, and the experiences of countless others has proven that to be a very limited viewpoint.