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Zac Sunderland on Intrepid (Photo courtesy Of ZacSunderland.com)

A 17-year-old Californian, Zac Sunderland piloted his battered sailboat into a Southern California harbour on Thursday to complete a gruelling 13-month voyage and become the youngest person to sail around the world solo.

The teen acknowledged the 27,500-mile voyage wasn’t easy. Pirates off the coast of Indonesia gave him quite a scare.  Zac recalled  the day “had a boat circle in and ended up calling in the coast watch and they chased them off but, yeah,  lucked out there! About an hour and a half of hell.”

Severe storms also were a problem, he said.

Sunderland’s Web site says he bought the boat with his own money. His parents had hoped he would find something that would spark a fire in him, a passion that would direct him away from all the negative and harmful influences that are so prevalent in society, but even they were stunned by the scope of his dreams and desires, it says.

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Zac on Intrepid ( Photo courtesy of ZacSunderland.com)

He was 16 when he left Marina del Rey on June 14, 2008, aboard his boat, Intrepid. Solitude and exhaustion were just a couple of factors that faced him each day. “The hardest constantly was the tiredness,” he said. “I mean, you get over the loneliness, but tiredness, it’s an ongoing thing. Half the time I haven’t slept in 48 hours and it’s just hard to get enough rest.”

Sunderland said he made some good contacts along the way. “It’s interesting just thinking back to the different places in the world because I have so many friends in different parts of the world that are like family, you know, and all these different experiences,” he said.

It’s awesome to be back,” Sunderland, of Thousand Oaks, California, said after he was welcomed home by a flotilla of well-wishers.

Fewer than 250 people have sailed solo around the globe, with three times that many scaling the top of Mount Everest, according to the American Sailing Association, which certified Sunderland’s feat.

He left Marina Del Rey, just south of Los Angeles, on June 14, 2008, and celebrated his 17th birthday at sea while off Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.

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Zac Up the Mast (Photo courtesy of LA Times Blogs.com)

His return was delayed near the end of his voyage when his single-masted boat sustained a broken bulkhead in rough seas off Mexico, forcing him to stop at Puerto Vallarta long enough for his father, Laurence, to fly in to make repairs.

The oldest of seven children, Sunderland was home-schooled and partly raised on a boat.

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Zac Sunderland Aboard Intrepid (Photo Courtesy of Travelblog.bcaa)

He becomes the first person under 18 to circumnavigate the globe by sea alone, and the youngest to date. The previous record-holder was David Dicks of Australia, who completed his voyage in November 1996 at age 18.

Congratulations Zac!