Mail Online is reporting that the yacht used by would-be round-the-world record-setter Jessica Watson has been left to rot outside the maritime museum where it has resided for almost a decade.
In 2009, then 16-year-old Watson, from Australia, sailed her yacht Ella’s Pink Lady around the globe in 210 days to unofficially become the youngest circumnavigator. The feat also saw her named as 2011’s Young Australian of the Year.
That same year the distinctive pink yacht was jointly purchased by Queensland and Australian governments for AUS$300,000, with the intention of a permanent exhibition dedicated to Watson’s feat at the Queensland Maritime Museum.
However, it’s now being claimed that Ella’s Pink Lady is lying all but abandoned on the museum’s grounds, with the hull leaking and riddled with mould.
And a marine auctions expert estimates that the famous boat is worth a fraction of its 2011 sale price. Mail Online has more on the story HERE.
In 2012, Watson’s claimed record was beaten by 16-year-old Dutch sailor Laura Dekker by some eight months, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.
