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December 2011
Posted on December 9th, 2011 4 commentsDear Friends:
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October 2011
Posted on October 13th, 2011 5 commentsDear Friends:
Sometimes I wish I could yell “stop the action!” I’d like to freeze things long enough to truly savor the sight, concentrate on enjoying the emotions, the memories it brings to mind. One such moment happened when, late on a beautiful and breezy Sunday afternoon, I walked around the corner of the Situate Maritime Building and saw Larry seated in Seraffyn’s cockpit.
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August 2011 – From Kawau
Posted on July 30th, 2011 2 commentsDear Friends,
It’s about the sailing. Voyaging, cruising foreign shores, as much as I love the adventure of traveling and meeting new people, a little yellow boat reminded me that it’s actually the sailing that has kept me hooked for so long. -
Ready for Cruising? (Video Cruising Tip)
Posted on April 16th, 2010 1 commentAre you ready to cruise offshore? In this video, Lin gives you a way to gauge for yourself.
Cruising Tip: Are You Ready for Cruising? -
Storm Tactics Video (DVD)
Posted on June 9th, 2009 2 comments
ABOUT STORM TACTICS VIDEO
“One of the reasons I wanted to sail east-to-west around Cape Horn was to take video shots proving that small vessels can safely weather storms if they are well outfitted and efficiently handled,” Larry Pardey stated after his record-breaking voyage. Lin and Larry completed their against-the-wind rounding of the Great Southern Capes on board their engineless 29-foot Taleisin earlier this year, weathering nine days of storm-force winds to reach Puerto Montt in Chile. There they interviewed several high-latitude voyagers, prepared the narrative, and shot further detailed footage to complete the Storm Tactics video, a project Lin and Larry conceived almost ten years ago.
When Lin and Larry began editing the final program in New Zealand, their work caught the eye of television director and editor Chris Gurr, who added his artistic talent to the project. Working with team New zealand, Grant Dalton and the late Sir Peter Blake, Chris has created several award-winning sailing programs that have aired in eleven countries.
Additional footage for this 90-minute program has been provided by Australia’s WinzTV. Their dramatic images include aerial and off-the-boat views of small boats sailing in 70-know winds (Force 12) in the Bass Straits, north of Tasmania. “It is important to encourage sailors to take a ‘can-do’ attitude when they encounter storm-force winds,” says cameraman Peter Harmsen, who was in the helicopter during the infamous 1998 Sydney-Hobart Race. “These pictures do just that.”
Figuring that many sailors will want to carry Storm Tactics on board and view it on their laptop computers, the Pardeys have produced the program in both VHS and DVD formats. “This program is designed to illustrate and expand on our Storm Tactics Handbook,” adds Lin. “We tried to add information and ideas we picked up from the folks we met at the bottom of the world.”
Besides actual storm tactics, the program includes information on securing gear, checking rigging, and gaining confidence before setting sail. The para-anchor setup is shown in detail for Taleisin as well as for modern boats, such as Beth Leonard and Evans Starzinger’s water-ballasted 47-fotter, Hawk.
Lin and Larry Pardey have now voyaged more than 170,000 miles, including both east-about and west-about circumnavigations. They have made passages on 20 different boats, ranging in size from their own 24′ 4″ and 29′ 6″ self-built cutters through modern racing boats to 85-foot classic schooners. As Herb McCormick, editor of Cruising Word puts it, “The Pardeys have received more awards for their pursuits than Tom Hanks has for his.”
Editor and author Roger Taylor wrote that their Storm Tactics Handbook “could save lives and dreams.” Reviewers are now making similar statements about the graphic demonstrations of gear, tactics, and advice presented in the Storm Tactics video.
Available at nautical bookstores and chandleries or online from www.paracay.com, the DVD and the video contain exactly the same information; each version costs US $29.95. In the United Kingdom, they are available for ú19.95 from Kelvin Hughes (www.bookharbour.com), Reed’s Nautical (www.reedsnautical.com), and Biograph Video (phone: 01626-201888 email: biograph@eurobell.co.uk). The video is available in both NTSC and PAL formats and runs 84 minutes.
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Get Ready To…. Pardey DVD Set
Posted on June 9th, 2009 No commentsGet both DVD’s in the Offshore Sailing series for a special price.
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Get Ready to CRUISE
Posted on June 9th, 2009 No comments -
Get Ready to CROSS OCEANS
Posted on June 9th, 2009 1 comment -
Cruising has NO LIMITS
Posted on June 9th, 2009 2 comments -
Storm Tactics Handbook, 3rd Ed.
Posted on June 9th, 2009 2 comments
“In a storm at sea, luck is highly biased toward the sailor who has a plan.” So write Lin and Larry Pardey in this, the third edition of their highly regarded Storm Tactics Handbook. As in the first two editions of this book, they describe their concerns about the tendency of modern sailors to discard the classic methods used to bring sailing vessels of all sizes—from vast clipper ships to tiny yachts—through amazingly strong winds and heavy seas. “There is only one storm tactic that has the ability to sap the power of breaking seas,” they explain. With clear and concise diagrams, they proceed to show how heaving-to works and how even the most modern of yachts can be made to heave-to, whether with only sail power or with the assistance of a sea anchor. A discussion of the many ways heaving-to can be useful at sea—as a way to help the crew keep well rested, to effect repairs, to steady a vessel should outside assistance ever be necessary—will convince even those who plan to run before their imagined “ultimate storm” that heaving-to is still a “must know.”
A series of user-friendly checklists will help sailors from the moment they start looking for their perfect offshore boat, through outfitting, and as they encounter their first storms at sea. Highly readable stories of the Pardeys’ encounters with storms, and of experiences related by several other modern sailors, help illustrate and expand the points made in this book.
Since writing the previous edition of Storm Tactics Handbook, Lin and Larry have voyaged an additional 35,000 miles. This has taken them as far north as Norway, twice across the Atlantic, south to Argentina, into the Pacific, around Cape Horn against the prevailing winds, and then on a circuit of the North Pacific. With insights gained from these recent voyages, they have fully revised and expanded this text by more than 40 percent, including nine completely new chapters. New material includes:
Lessons from Cape Horn
An interview with the late Sir Peter Blake, on storm survival and heaving-to
Heaving-to using a Galerider on 55-foot Morgan’s Cloud
Adding rudder protection stops
Discussions on avoiding chafe, building and using storm staysails, choosing storm gear, deploying para-anchors, avoiding the worst areas of cyclonic storms, and many more have been expanded to answer many questions posed by readers and seminar attendees.
Mario Vittone, a U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer for 14 years, in an unsolicited testimony, wrote: “I have been on several rescues (and heard of many more) that would have been completely unnecessary if the sailboat captains aboard would have . . . practiced the skills taught by Lin and Larry Pardey. Not knowing how to heave-to in bad weather is as inexcusable as not knowing ‘red, right, return’.”
Previous editions of Storm Tactics Handbook have sold more than 32,000 copies worldwide. As recently as November 2007, the second edition—ten years after its publication—was consistently #1 on Amazon.com for instructional sailing books and #2 for atmospheric science. -
Seraffyn’s Oriental Adventure
Posted on June 9th, 2009 1 comment
A tale of adventures, as two young dreamers continue their voyaging on board their self-built 24′4″ cutter. They cross the exotic sea that spawned Homer’s tales of Ulysses’ Odyssey, then sail through the strife torn Red Sea and across the typhoon tossed waters of the Bay of Bengal. -
Seraffyn’s Mediterranean Adventure
Posted on June 9th, 2009 2 comments
Covers three adventurous years in the Pardey’s circumnavigation with stops in Spain, North Africa, Crete, Malta, the Adriatic, Turkey and the Greek Isles. -
Seraffyn’s European Adventure
Posted on June 9th, 2009 1 comment
Join Lin and Larry while they winter in England working to pay for the next leg of their journey into the Baltic, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany. They dealt with armed guards on the Polish waterfront who watched while the people greeted them with flowers and fruit. They weathered a fierce mast-under broach in a Baltic gale. This story ends at the gateway to the Mediterranean to be continued in Seraffyn’s Mediterranean Adventure. -
Self Sufficient Sailor
Posted on June 9th, 2009 2 comments
Full of ideas and wisdom on how to sail in comfort and safety without large cash outlays. Every sailor, whether or not they plan to sail over the horizon, should read the Pardeys. This book is what the title says. It is the distillation of what the Pardey’s have learned in 150,000 miles of sailing on board their two cutters, Seraffyn and Taleisin, and on scores of other boats they have delivered or raced. Lin and Larry tell how they have sailed in comfort and safety without large cash outlay– on a pay-as-you-earn-as-you-go plan and by simplifying. In its first edition, this invaluable text has seen nine reprints. Now Lin and Larry have updated and revised the information to make it current and a valuable edition to any sailor’s library right up to the millennium. -
Cruising in Seraffyn 25th Anniversary Ed.
Posted on June 9th, 2009 1 comment
Cruising in Seraffyn has sold over 50,000 copies in five editions and three languages. The Pardeys have also added a sixteen page full-color album with 35 new photographs for this silver anniversary edition. This book will inspire new readers and appeal to fans who already enjoy the special world Lin and Larry share with their lively and informative prose.
