Jessica Watson’s voyage involved unacceptable risk: a response to a recent opinion piece by Simon Crisp*

Excuse me, Simon, if I don’t congratulate Jessica Watson’s parents for “allowing” her to sail around the world. As an outdoor education teacher and parent of three children, all of whom have grown into rounded adults, putting myself in Jessica’s parents’ shoes simply causes me severe discomfort.

Despite what Simon says, those common sense arguments critical of Jessica’s voyage do not become redundant simply because she returned safely. In fact, they make just as much sense now as they did before she set off. If an eight-year-old (or even a sixteen-year-old) managed to drive a car alone from Sydney to Melbourne and survive, it would not mean that the feat was justified. After all, how young is too young?

I’m not sure, as Simon suggests, that many of Jessica’s critics have actually been silenced by her success. It seems rather that they have been drowned out by the clamour of a populist media that feeds on heroes and villains. To be fair, Simon is half right when he states that parents should teach their children to take risks. More pertinently though, they should teach their children what risks to take and what risks not to take.

Few would disagree with Simon that addiction to computer technology is a serious problem for healthy psychological development. It is ironic, therefore, that Jessica appears to have spent much of her seven months at sea engaged in internet social networking. An even more serious problem for psychological development, however, is the absence of a mother’s touch for such a long period at such a critical time in such a young person’s life. It is surprising that, as a clinical psychologist, Simon does not recognise this. How can sanctioning seven months’ solitary confinement, without any guarantee of safe return, be conducive to a child’s psychological health?

According to Simon, Jessica’s parents had a conversation with her about sensible judgement and personal safety. Real judgement, though, only comes with real experience. Jessica had never sailed solo before her ill-fated test run when she dramatically collided with the freighter Silver Yang. Even for experienced sailors, sailing solo around the world is like playing Russian roulette with the forces of nature. Just ask Tony Bullimore or Thierry Dubois.

For risks to be acceptable, in the very first place, the benefits must be clear. In Jessica’s case, the big material rewards on offer come at the price of her being a creature of her management and the media. In any case that’s not what she said motivated her. It may sound harsh, but the “record” that she set is not totally credible in that her voyage was hardly unsupported. The voyage would have been more admirable (though no wiser) if there had been some kind of connection with the great environmental issues facing the planet and its oceans.

For risks to be acceptable, moreover, there must be minimal risk of serious loss, taking into account the nature of the hazards and the competence of the person/s taking the risks. In Jessica’s case, the hazards, her inexperience and the uncertainty associated with these factors meant that the risks could hardly be described as acceptable. By supporting their daughter in the pursuit of a crazy “life-long” dream, Jessica’s parents, her management and her sponsors all failed the prudence test. It would have been kinder to Jessica to simply encourage her to sail solo locally and pay more attention to developing other facets of her character.

Jessica deserves credit for her single-mindedness, if nothing else. (I know this sounds harsh.) While it is too early to know how many ever younger adventurers will attempt to copy hers or similar feats, let’s hope her example will inspire others to challenge themselves, as she herself wishes, but in sensible ways.

Robbo Bennetts

*Click here to read the original article.

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