When tens of thousands of dollars and many man hours were spent in rescuing a 16-year-old girl whose parents allowed her to try to sail around the world solo, we thought the silliness had subsided.

The girl, Abby Sunderland, had to be rescued after a wave snapped the mast on her craft west of Australia.

Her parents were blistered with criticism for letting a child - a 16-year-old is, after all, not an adult - attempt such a dangerous journey. But her 17-year-old brother did the same thing successfully the year before, briefly holding the record for being the youngest sa...