/ Thursday, May 5, 1983/The Battalion/Page 3B 0 ormer driver ants to sail orld — alone ie def< ■ of the :an histi i to see i 1862 he United Press International RTH YARMOUTH, — It’s easy sailing these r Bill Dunlop, a former driver who crossed the lie in 78 days in a 9-foot t — a feat that etched his in the Guiness Book of Records. , , M ce then, he has been paid jpear in magazine ads and in tnel Br s j lows> shake hands /as name iat f or a f ee 0 {' ^ j qqo ter apt ‘‘I S : 1 picks up $100 a day from a rink company to visit s and tell kids about his itures. |travel around the world, ses paid, first class,” Dun- id after showing slides of toric ocean crossing to stu- its at North Yarmouth [orial School. nlop, 41, likes the public- nd the money. But he says ill hing to get back into his - iilboat, Wind’s Will, to be- I ft new conquest: a trip J I \jund the world. ^vlO’Six months of this stuff is ab- gl I can take. I want to get It’s going to take me years iwoppciyears, and I’m not getting r, gowuftninger,” said Dunlop, who all andftn Mechanic Falls, Maine, al-dear fteis planning to leave July 31 Portland on a 29,000-mile ;e that will take him the bet- rt of three years, je will glide down the east jof the United States, mak- its for ihance lucts. show iiinding! Edwaria few stops along the way to ote the release of a forth- g book about his history- g trip last year, en it’s on to the Panama , where fellow sailors have d him that authorities ntribuffifijt not let his tiny boat lutomolftugh the massive locks. But :dedineftvon’t faze Dunlop, the stabJl’ll tell them what they can do here are ies and i a raditiil ikes it h i compai f money heir canal atid go the other - around Cape Horn,” he then plans to sail up to Los les, across the Pacific, Ocean and around the tip uth Africa, then across the ttic to the Caribbean, and ly back to Portland and :es, he rear, dip ers seem rformani lat’sbea i • • I Cl V. I V 7 ^ ."5 1.1 I X dV-llIV-j amng. mf Australia, across the In- formaM luxury t lilized.” tcross toi :turers»: ifinedto nmercialilf he makes it, the New w puttiti mpshire mill worker’s son to natutf o gave up truck driving for 1 the eiji lire of sailing adventure will ssion,wL a string of new sailing re nd intherds— the most outstanding ole in e:nig the smallest craft to cir- etween finavigate the globe. , local “I d rather die trying than not )it at all,” said the stout, soft- spoken sailor. “If I had to go and get a regular job and do the same old thing all the time — cripes. I’d rather die out there.” He nearly did die last summer when he set a world record for the smallest craft ever to cross the Atlantic from west to east — a 78-day, 3,000-mile voyage from Portland to Falmouth, En gland. Wayne Dickinson of Florida made the same crossing this year in a boat two inches shorter than Dunlop’s 9-foot, 7 /8-inch Wind’s Will. Dickinson’s vessel crashed along the Irish Coast, however, and sank. It was unclear if Gui ness would recognize the re cord. The overall record for the shortest craft to sail across the Atlantic was set in 1968 by American Hugo Vihlen, who pi loted a 6-foot craft east to west from Africa to Florida. During Dunlop’s oddessy, he suffered from painful seawater sores on his back and buttocks while sailing through storms of near hurricane force that cap sized his boat at least 15 times. Fog so thick he couldn’t see 10 feet in front of him kept Dunlop in a dark, eerie solitude for 33 days that had him hallucinating that the pulleys on the mast were talking to him. “It takes a long stretch of the imagination to call it fun,” Dun lop said. His Atlantic voyage took three years to plan and cost ab out $ 15,000, about half of it was paid by sponsors. With the same sailboat and sponsors, he ex pects it will cost more than $15,000 for the round-the- world trek. For his feat, Dunlop was made a lifetime member of the International Explorers Club, putting him in a class with Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to conquer Mt. Everest, and John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth. Such hero recognition makes Dunlop a popular speaker at schools, especially in his native Maine. “We don’t have many heroes today, and I personally regard (Dunlop) as a hero,” said Merle Davis, a Memorial School teacher who arranged Dunlop’s visit. Dunlop doesn’t see it that way. “I’m the furthest thing from what you call a hero — I’m not super anything. I’m not super smart, I’m not super-strong,” he said. “I’m just a regular person that does some amazing things.” Graduation Specials 30% OFF ALL LOOSE DIAMONDS 415 University Charges CPINE JEWELlflO 846-5816 Lay-a-ways Ji ing/ n dL^ j Villa Oaks West apartments “Bright Idea!” • Convenient to campus • Brand new • Spacious floor plans • On-site leasing and management • Pool, fireplaces, laundry room Now preleasing! 1107 Verde Drive between FM-2818 and Villa Maria Road 779-1136 i I i I Criticism may spark reforms School leaders applaud report United Press International Boys and girls may not go along with reform ideas from the National Commission on Excellence in Education — especially those calling for an 11-month school year, a seven-hour school day and more homework. But leaders of the nation’s public schools — 16,000 inde pendent school districts — are applauding, a sampling of re sponses shows. The report by the commis sion, created 18 months ago by Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell, was issued April 26. It flunked the schools, saying: “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to im pose on America the mediocre educational per formance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.” Signs of mediocrity include a skid in Scholastic Aptitude Test scores and declines in reading, science and mathe matics performance. Other deficiencies — in math, science, foreign lan guage education and compu ters — threaten to blunt the nation’s edge in high tech nology. Scott Thomson, executive director of the National Asso ciation of Secondary School Principals, reacting to the re port, said: “Schools can improve, and that is a fact that principals, other administrators and teachers must realize. But we can’t wave a magic wand to create improvement. “Society must undertand that education is an invest ment in America, and that everyone has a role to play.” Thomson made note of the numerous comparisons in the report between U.S. schools and those in Japan. “If people believe that the Japanese get greater produc tivity from their educational system than we do, the simple fact is that they contribute greater support to their schools.” In the 1978-79 Japanese fiscal year about 7.1 percent of the national income was spent on elementary and secondary education, accord ing to the Ministry of Educa tion, Science and Culture. By comparison, in 1981-82, about 4 percent of the U.S. gross national product was spent on schools. The commission’s report came out during the annual “If an unfriendly fore ign power had attemp ted to impose on America the mediocre educational perform ance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. ” convention of the National School Boards Association in San Francisco. A series of resolutions fol lowed and recommended loc al school boards: — Review high school gra duation requirements and course offerings to bolster programs in English, mathe matics, science, social studies, computer science and foreign languages. — Develop written school board policies that call for “more rigorous and measur able standards and higher ex pectations for academic per formance and student con duct.” — Explore ways to add more instructional time, either by lengthening the school day and year or by us ing currently available time more efficiently. — Design and implement plans to gain public support for educational reform and a commitment to provide money needed. Dr. Paul Salmon, executive director of the American Association of School Admi nistrators, hopes the commis sion’s report is an indication that President Reagan has fin ally realized the nation has a stake in education. The association frequently has expressed concerns about White House proposals to re duce funds for public schools. The administration proposals include tuition tax credits for a portion of money spent on tuition paid to private schools — plus the voucher plan. The latter, favored by pri vate schools, would provide a voucher good for “X” number of dollars for education per student every year. The stu dent or his parents would de cide whether to put the money into public or private educa tion. Willard McGuire, presi dent of the National Educa tion Association, the teacher’s union, said the commission’s report is exciting. “It calls for far greater na tional leadership in educa tion,” he said. “It urges local- state-national partnership. Implementing commission recommendations will cost bil lions, McGuire said. He said the public school bill now is something over $100 billion a year and in cludes $50 billion from the states, $7 billion from the fed eral government and $43 bil lion from local sources. The federal contribution will go to $22.7 billion a year if commision recommendations are carried out, he said. twin > i* ww wwiij l bols for Foreign Travel Touring and exploring the far flung corners of the world will be more pleasurable with careful planning and the right gear. Camera Belt Pack leaves hands free to hike, bikej orski ( Padded dividers for camera, lenses, film. 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