Tom’s route.Tom’s route.

A teenager’s dream of sailing from Sicily to Malta later this month to raise money for charity will have to be put on hold for a few months.

Avid sailor Tom Bonello Ghio, 16, was planning to set a record and sail solo 60 nautical miles from Sicily to Comino to collect funds for children’s charity Puttinu Cares.

Although he had scheduled the event to start on Saturday at midnight, unfortunately he had to postpone it to early next year “due to unforeseen circumstances”.

“Due to such a busy sailing calendar it was hard to get the right people to help me out due to their sailing schedules,” he said.

Postponing it to mid-October was also not possible because of the upcoming popular Middle Sea Race in which he will be taking part.

From November to March the weather conditions are too unpredictable

“From November to March the weather conditions are too unpredictable and it would be very hard to pick a date due to conditions so I’m planning it for end of April or beginning of May,” Tom said.

He was planning to leave Marina Di Ragusa in Sicily at midnight to sail 60 miles to Gozo. From there, he was going to proceed to Comino, then sail along Malta’s east coast to the Royal Malta Yacht Club, on Manoel Island, a journey expected to take 14 hours.

This will be the first crossing from Sicily to Malta in a Laser 4.7, a very popular, small competition boat with a single sail of 4.7 square metres. He had, in fact, contacted Guinness World Book of Records to certify the feat.

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