Jessica Watson Net Worth: How Rich is the Sailor Actually?

Jessica Watson is an Australian sailor who is known for being the youngest person to sail around the world without an assist. She departed Sidney on October 18 October 2009 heading toward the northeast and returned to Sidney just three days before her 17 birthday on May 15, 2010. As of 2023, Jessica Watson net worth is estimated to be around $2 million. 

Who is Jessica Watson?

Jessica Watson is a sailor and explorer from Queensland. She received the Order of Australia Medal at the age of 16 after completing a solo circumnavigation. Watson completed the voyage shorter than the required 21,600 nautical miles. For her effort, she was named the 2011 Young Australian of the year.

Watson was born on May 18, 1993, in Gold Coast, Queensland. She was born as the second of four kids to a New Zealander couple, Julie and Roger Watson. Her parents reportedly shifted to Australia in 1987. Jessica and her three siblings took sailing lessons when they were kids.

Watson along with her two sisters and a brother were homeschooled via distance learning. Since at that time, her family was living on board, a 16-meter cabin cruiser. Jessica developed an ambition to sail around the world when she was 12.

Jessica Watson Net Worth & Career

 

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Watson decided to execute her planning trip and thus conferred with an official of The World Sailing Speed Record Council to know the criteria for global circumnavigation. However, later she learned that she won’t receive any record due to her age.

Jessica eventually decided to not cover the distance criterion. In May 2009, she officially announced that her journey would take 8 months with an estimated sailing distance of 23,000 nautical miles. As she was planning to sail non-stop and unassisted, no other person was allowed to give her anything.

Watson started her voyage from Sidney and she had to end in Sydney. According to International Sailing Federation’s WSSRC, she must have to cross the equator. Covering her voyage, she arrived back in Sydney Harbour on May 15, 2010, at 1:53 pm. While talking to the news outlet, Watson revealed that she wanted to challenge herself and achieve something to be proud of.

Watson also wanted to inspire people and wanted to prove what a little girl was capable of. Following that, she wrote a book about her experience, which was titled “True Spirit”. The book was published by Hachette Australia and was released on July 29, 2010.

Later, she filed a documentary about her solo trip which premiered on ONEHD on August 16, 2010. Watson’s legendary sailing voyage around the world was presented on Netflix with the True Spirit on February 3. The Netflix streamer tells the true story of Watson who completed a 210-day sailing trip non-stop and without an assist.

Watson unofficially broke the record for the youngest to sail unassisted and non-stop around the world. However, she could not be officially recognized by the World Speed Sailing Record Council as she was too young. In a recent podcast interview, the youngest sailor said that the Netflix film is mostly scarily accurate to what she experienced while at sea.

Jessica Watson’s Husband & Personal Life

Jessica Watson is not married to anyone yet. However, she was in a relationship with her boyfriend, Cameron Dale for 10 years. She eventually lost her beloved partner after suffering a stroke from undiagnosed high blood pressure in 2021.

After the demise of her partner, Watson shared that she cocooned in shock and it took months to fully comprehend what had happened. She became actively involved in raising her voice to convince young people to maintain their blood pressure levels after she lost Dale.

Jessica Watson Net Worth

Jessica Watson has earned an estimated net worth of $2 million as of 2023. Since her epic voyage, she has gone back to living a pretty normal life. Though, she got to sail again while assisting with the making of the Netflix film, True Spirit. The youngest sporting star has also become a motivational speaker, author, and businesswoman since her epic achievement.