Sacramento Man Mistaken For Captain Ahab

So close!:

A Natomas man's 12-year sail around the world was sunk about 900 miles from its final port when a whale crushed a hole in his boat off the Mexican coast.

"It has always been a dream of his to circumnavigate the world in a sailboat," said his wife Debra Young. Although her husband, Max Young, didn't quite make it, the experienced sailor came close.

Max Young, 67, was rescued from his sinking sailboat about 40 miles west of La Playa, Mexico, on Wednesday. His 50-foot, single-masted sailboat had been clobbered by a whale, the behemoth destroying the rudder and punching a hole in the vessel.

...Max Young began his around the world trip in May 2000 after retiring from his teaching job the first time. His navigation of the world has taken longer than expected as the Youngs have had to stop sailing to work in order to finance the marathon voyage.

Along the way, Young, sometimes accompanied by his wife, sailed to Hawaii, Tahiti, Western Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Australia.

The boat stayed in Australia for three or four years before a different crew sailed to Malaysia. From there it went for a long stay in Thailand, where the boat was out of the water at the time of the tsunami.

Young then sailed to the Red Sea, through the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean. He kept the boat in Turkey for a couple of years and in Rome a year.

He eventually sailed across the Atlantic and the boat was kept in South Carolina for the last 2.5 years. This year, the Youngs were trying to get it back to the West Coast.