Adults can make their own decision about what risks are acceptable but children should be under the sewardship of their parents. What parent would allow a 16 year old child to sail around the world solo?
One question that bothers me is how come people underage and
adults alike who embarked in ventures that put their lives at risk or
push them to the limit of physical endurance are often commended
as role models? And in a few of such ventures that ended in deaths
it was remarked that they died doing what they loved. This is indeed
what I read about Steve Fossett the multi-millionaire balloonist
famous for his circumnavigations and that youngest girl pilot. So
if you die jumping off Niagara fall your death is not as tragic as it is
heroic. Being young would help to cement your reputation
as well posthumously.