14-year-old may get to sail world after all

AP

ALL ABOARD: Laura Dekker at the Princess Juliana International Airport on the Caribbean island of St Maarten.

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A 14-year-old Dutch girl may be allowed to set sail on a solo around the world voyage after all.

A Dutch court has allowed Laura Dekker - who holds duel Dutch-New Zealand citizenship - to stay in her father's care following her disappearance last week, and has laid out conditions to allow the teenage sailor to begin her trip, possibly within three months.

The court's judges said this would provide a chance for Dekker to prove herself ready for the challenge, DutchNews.nl has reported.

Dekker will now be expected to complete a first aid course and make several of sailing trips abroad in order to prepare.

Dekker disappeared last December 17, months after welfare authorities forced her to postpone her attempt to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world.

She was found on the island of St Martin in the Dutch Antilles, where her lawyer said, she was trying to buy a boat; she was flown home on Tuesday.

After her disappearance last week, the welfare authorities had sought to have her removed from her home and placed in a crisis shelter.

-with Reuters