British teen sailor makes repair stop

Hobart, Australia: A 17-year-old British sailor who is attempting to become the youngest person to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe docked at an Australian port yesterday for his fourth repair stop about halfway through his trouble-plagued voyage.

Mike Perham, of Potters Bar in Hertsfordshire, England, said he sailed his 15-metre yacht into Australia's most southerly city, Hobart, for precautionary repairs to a rudder, battery recharger and ballast pump.

The recharger had been defective since a large wave tipped the yacht over in the Antarctic Ocean just over a week before reaching Hobart.

Since he set sail from Portsmouth, England, on November 15 for what was to be a nonstop four-and-a-half month journey, Perham has been forced to dock for repairs in Lisbon, Canary Islands and Cape Town in South Africa.

Perham, who celebrated his 17th birthday at sea on March 16, said in Hobart that he now expects to finish the rest of the 39,000-kilometre journey in just under 10 weeks from yesterday. He hoped to leave Hobart within days.

"I've poured by heart and soul into this project," Perham said.