A GIANT FELLED: Two-time Circumnavigator Larry Pardey (1939-2020)

Larry Pardey had a lifelong motto, which he intoned time and time again, and just for extra measure, demonstrated on a regular basis: “If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.” Nope, Pardey never took the straightforward, uncomplicated path. He had his reasons, and they were basic. The harder it was to, for instance, build something, or sail somewhere, the more delicious, delightful and enjoyable the reward.

The cruising world lost yet another major presence and contributor this past summer when Pardey, a two-time circumnavigator, master boatbuilder, prolific author and allaround good guy passed away in New Zealand after a long series of illnesses. He was 81.

With his wife, sailing partner and longtime co-author, Lin (the couple penned nearly a dozen books, along with countless magazine articles and a long series of videos),

Pardey completed two long and rambling circumnavigations on a pair of engineless wooden boats he built with his own hands: the 24-foot-6-inch Seraffyn and the 29-foot-6inch Taleisin. Both boats, styled after the long-keeled Bristol Channel Cutters, were designed by Lyle Hess. Each one was basically a museum piece, exquisitely and lovingly crafted by Pardey to the highest standards possible. They were stout, rugged and sailed like banshees. Just like the man who built them.

Born in Canada in 1939, at an early age Pardey fell in love with the notion of going to sea, following the exploits of his fellow British Columbians, especially a young man named John Guzzwell, who sailed around the world alone in a simple boat and returned home having spent just a couple hundred of the $500 he left with. I can do that, Pardey thought. He moved to Southern California in his early 20s in search of his own seagoing adventures, and began his voyaging career as a deckhand on a schooner called Double Eagle on a long trip across the Pacific. Soon after, he began work on Seraffyn and met a young lady named Lin Zatkin, an enthusiastic but novice sailor. They married in 1968 and set off on an open-ended cruise, which ultimately turned into a decadelong spin around the planet.

Upon their return, the couple moved to a remote California mountain and commenced work on their second boat, Taleisin, so named by fellow voyager Tristan Jones after a legendary Welsh poet. Could they have found an easier spot for such an undertaking? Why, of course! But what fun, or how satisfying, would that have been? Taleisin became their vehicle for a second circumnavigation, one that took them deep into the

South Atlantic and around Cape Horn. It was a highlight of their distinguished long-range-voyaging career.

Along the way, they found a home in a perfect, protected cove on tiny Kawau Island off the coast of New Zealand, which became their base for many years; there, Pardey had a small boat-repair business and yard he called Mickey Mouse Marine, “a 3-M company.”

Over the course of their sailing lives, the Pardeys came to be known as “the first couple of cruising,” and collaborated on a small library of how-to books and firstperson narratives based on their own extensive travels and hard-earned knowledge. It’s difficult if not impossible to detail the influence they had in the realm of cruising under sail. The crux of their advice became their motto: “Go simple, go small, go now.”

I knew Pardey for decades, and was honored and thrilled when he and Lin commissioned me to write their biography, titled after yet another motto: As Long as It’s Fun. It was nearly a decade ago that I traveled to their place in New Zealand and spent many long and cherished hours swilling gallons of coffee with Pardey and listening to one amazing tale after the next. In retrospect, my interview sessions came in the nick of time. Not long after, Pardey was struck by a series of small tragedies: a stroke, Parkinson’s and dementia. I guess even sequoias can be felled.

Ultimately, before the sad ending, Pardey became one of the greatest all-around sailors of all time, in any era. He was a consummate seaman, a precise navigator, a peerless boatbuilder. He was also a mentor and friend to countless cruisers and sailors he met along his eventful life’s journey. His passing truly marks the end of a remarkable era. Yes, there are still many gifted and passionate mariners out there. But there was only one Larry Pardey.