UTRECHT – A Dutch court allowed teenage sailor Laura Dekker to stay in her father’s care yesterday after her return to the Netherlands following her disappearance last week.
Laura (14) went missing last Thursday after welfare authorities thwarted her attempt to become the youngest person to sail single-handedly around the world. She was found to be on St Martin in the Dutch Antilles, and was flown home on Tuesday.
“She went there to buy a boat,” lawyer Peter de Lange told reporters outside the court, adding that Ms Dekker told the court yesterday about her intentions: “Boats are a lot cheaper there.” It was previously not known why she fled to St Martin, although it had been speculated she planned to start her voyage.Unconfirmed Dutch media reports say she withdrew €3,500 from her account last week.
Ms Dekker is also said to have quickly made contacts within the sailing community on St Martin after her arrival there.
Born on her parents’ boat in New Zealand, she had intended to start on September 1st a two-year solo voyage round the world – financed by sponsors – but a court blocked her departure and placed her under state supervision, saying the trip posed risks to her safety. Ms Dekker’s parents separated when she was six and she lives with her father, Dick Dekker, who backed her sailing trip.
The Utrecht Bureau of Youth Care had requested the court to place her for three months with an unnamed family or a “contact” within the bureau’s network in a case being heard behind closed doors due to privacy reasons.
She still plans to attempt her journey, starting at the earliest in July 2010, but has to meet various conditions imposed by the court.