2009 Far Horizons Award to Lin and Larry Pardey Press Release
New York, N.Y., USA (January 21, 2010) – The Cruising Club of America has selected Lin and Larry Pardey to receive its prestigious 2009 Far Horizons Award in recognition of their lifetime of cruising and voyaging. 
The award will be presented on March 5, 2010 by CCA Commodore Sheila McCurdy (Middletown, R.I.) during the club's annual Awards Dinner at the New York Yacht Club, in New York.
Lin and Larry Pardey were married on October 31, 1968 in Newport Beach, Calif., and on that same day they launched Seraffyn, a Lyle Hess designed cutter they built themselves. Seraffyn was 24 feet 7 inches LOA (length overall) with an 8-foot 11-inch beam, and the boat had no engine. They began their trip eastward through the Panama Canal and then crossed on to Europe. For 11 years they cruised the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas and then headed south through the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and on to Japan. From there, they traveled to Canada and south back to Newport Beach for a total circumnavigation of 47,000 miles.
Fifteen years to the date, October 31, 1983, they launched another Hess design, Taleisin, which was 29-feet 6-inches, with a 10-foot 9-inch beam, and 17,800 lbs. displacement. Similar to their previous boat, this vessel has no engine. They sailed westward from California through the Pacific to New Zealand. With time they continued westward to South Africa, Brazil, Ireland, the British Isles, Norway, and then to the East Coast U.S. They then voyaged south to Argentina and rounded Cape Horn westbound and crossed their outbound track which completed their circumnavigation in 2003.
After spending three seasons exploring the Pacific Northwest, they eventually sailed west across the Pacific to New Zealand to finish their third circumnavigation. All told the trip equaled 80,000 miles.
Larry Pardey was born in 1939 in Victoria, Canada and his first boat at age 9 was an Indian dug out canoe. His first cruising boat was a self-restored, 20-foot Colin Archer cutter. To date he has logged more than 205,000 sea miles.
Lin Pardey was born in 1944 in Detroit, Michigan and later raised in Los Angeles County. As a young child, her early sailing was in a 14-foot Old Town sloop. Lin has logged more than 198,000 sea miles.
Together, the couple has shared their sailing and cruising experiences with sailors around the world by writing 10 books that range from Storm Tactics Handbook to Cost Conscious Cruiser. Lin and Larry have also published a number of popular videos and DVDs, and their co-authored articles have appeared in numerous yachting publications worldwide.
For the record: The Pardeys hold the record for the smallest boat to have circumnavigated contrary to the prevailing winds around all the great southern capes. They are the only couple to have circumnavigated both east-about and west-about on boats they built themselves, using traditional means of navigation and having no engine or sponsorship.
