[DJ MacWoW]

or is it just that this girl had a turn of bad luck

LUCK?!

"But veteran Australian sailor Ian Kiernan echoed the concerns of others that she would be sailing through the Indian Ocean when weather conditions would be at their most treacherous. "I don't know what she's doing in the Southern Ocean as a 16-year-old in the middle of winter," said Mr Kiernan, who himself has sailed solo around the world. "It's just foolhardy".

And let's not forget the dead 7 year old pilot that also killed her instructor and her father. But dead kids don't count. Setting a record does, right?

[SZonian]

What about the pilots? Any thoughts on them? Or is that too inconvenient to address?

As to Kiernan,

Did he voice those concerns directly to her and the family or is he just now coming out as some spokeshole?

I see nothing in that article that indicates he talked with the family personally about the risks. Did he make such a clamor about this PRIOR to Abby sailing as to put some doubts into not only the sponsors, but the family? Not that I can see.

So using him as some shining beacon of experience on the hill is pointless. His words now ring hollow and empty.