"Teachers, boat builders, authors, over 175,000 miles
of cruising" reads the inscription on the Seven Seas
Service Award plaque. The Seven Seas Cruising Association
announced the presentation of this award to Lin and Larry
Pardey at their 2004 cruising gam at Melbourne, Florida.
Lin and Larry recently celebrated 37 years of voyaging
on board their two boats, 24'4" Seraffyn and 29'6"
Taleisin, by sailing from the Atlantic North East coast,
south around Cape Horn, and onward to Victoria, Canada.
During those 37 years they have written ten books, and
presented over 300 seminars in ten different countries
to encourage young and young- at- heart sailors that ocean
voyaging is affordable and do-able. Tom Linskey, 470 champion
sailor, author, and senior editor at Sail Magazine, called
them the Pardeys "the enablers." Others have
debated their view that when it comes to offshore voyaging,
simpler is better. But no one has questioned that their
sailing exploits have encouraged inenumerable people to
get out and dip their stem in the big waters.
Though Lin and Larry are contemplating future voyages
on their self-built Taleisin, which is currently in
Victoria, British Columbia, they were unable to attend
the November presentation due tobecause of a new boat
in their livfes. Late in October they flew to their
home base in New Zealand to take possession of Thelma,
a 37- foot racing yacht, built and designed in 1895
by C. and W. Bailey in Auckland, New Zealand. They intend
to return Thelma to her original glory. "We hope
to have her out racing with the other classics by the
end of the southern summer," Larry commented. "She'll
still need another winter's work to bring her to the
condition she deserves. But that might take a few years,
as we are going to try to avoid true winter by rejoining
Taleisin for the northern summer months."
Lin adds, "We've read that each of us is allotted
a limited number of summers. If our plan works, we might
just be able to double that number from now on out."
The Seven Seas Cruising Association, with an international
membership of 5000 families, promotes the enjoyment
of cruising while "leaving a clean wake."
The service award is presented only periodically, to
commend those who have performed special services to
the sailing and cruising community.
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