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Pardey's
Sail to Unusual World Record by Doubling Cape Horn.
 "Larry
has dreamed of sailing around Cape Horn the hard way, east
to west, against the prevailing winds, ever since he started
building this boat," Lin Pardey said in an interview
from Puerto Montt, Chile. "I was the one who dragged
my heels. I had sailed with Larry for over l50,000 miles,
yet I was spooked by the stories of professionally sailed
square rigged ships which battled westerly gales for 50 or
60 days and failed to double to horn. But Larry reminded me
that we had written Storm Tactics Handbook- modern methods
for heaving to, we should be willing to go where there would
be serious rough weather and get photographic evidence to
prove that heaving-to really works, and creates a slick which
helps protect sailing vessels from breaking seas. It took
us five months work to upgrade Taleisin to the condition we
wanted, and as we headed south we experienced the hardest
sailing of our lives. But now we are elated. We actually did
it, doubling the horn from Puerto Deseado, Argentina to Chiloe,
Chile in 2l days, and beating to windward or heaving to through
9 days of storm force winds with no damage to Taleisin or
her crew."
Lin and Larry have been sailing together since l965 when
they built their 24 foot engineless cutter Seraffyn and embarked
on an eleven year east-about 47,000 mile circumnavigation.
They then built and launched 29'6" Taleisin (also engineless)
to sail west-about venturing to 6l degrees north latitude
and around the southern capes in a voyage that has now covered
over 65,000 miles. They have visited more than 70 countries
and have earned their cruising funds by delivering yachts,
doing boat repairs and more recently through writing ten sailing
books and producing four videos. They also maintain a newsletter
with photos at www.paracay.com.
They have a home/boat yard in New Zealand.
The Chilean Navy confirmed that no other yacht has been cleared
to sail around Cape Horn then directly west into the Pacific
in at least the past seven years, though it is known that
the British Challenge fully crewed maxi's took a similar route.
So Taleisin may be the smallest boat to have circumnavigated
contrary to the prevailing winds by way of the great southern
Capes. It is certain the Pardeys are the only sailors to have
circumnavigated both east-about and west-about in engineless
boats they built themselves, using no sponsorship and relying
only on celestial navigation. As Larry quipped, "We used
free energy, the wind and the sun."
"Larry was magnificent;" Lin reported, "steering
Taleisin for sixteen hours, tack on tack through the islands
northeast of Cape Horn in southwest winds of 45 knots, gusting
55, to reach the Horn in time to take advantage of the light
easterly winds that were forecast. I still can't believe it
but we actually were able to fly our nylon drifter as we passed
the Horn and can now, funny as it sounds, lay claim to being
the only folks to have sailed contrary to the prevailing winds
past all the southern capes, flying our nylon drifter."
"The real hero of it all is Lyle Hess." Larry added.
" He designed this amazing little ship that can keep
moving in the lightest of breezes and get to windward in winds
of 45 and 50 knots with a storm trysail and 40 square foot
storm staysail, then lay safely hove-to, hanging on to her
weathering through winds we later learned blew steadily in
excess of 65 knots for almost 36 hours."
For more information contact Matt Morehouse at Paradise Cay
Publications, (800) 736-4509 or email info@paracay.com
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