As Long as It's Fun

To anyone interested in small-boat cruising and voyaging, the names Lin and Larry Pardey need no introduction. As world-girdling sailors who roamed the planet on a pair of small, engineless boats that they built themselves, the Pardeys established their hard-earned reputations by eloquently (and sometimes controversially) telling their stories through a series of best-selling books and manuals, and countless seminars and boat shows. They have been called the first couple of cruising and have remained true to their mantra: Go simple, go small, go now. And after 200,000 miles of cruising under sail, they've demonstrated that the dream of voyaging over the horizon is not only attainable, it's affordable. The children of modest, middle-class families, their message of accessibility into the world of cruising-of taking your own floating home anywhere-has proved irresistible to tens of thousands of sailors. Lin and Larry Pardey became cruising royalty not solely due to their impressive deeds but also through their rare ability to share what they'd learned across multiple media. Seemingly every offshore cruiser knows who they are and what they represent. Or do they? In As Long as It's Fun, the biography of Lin and Larry Pardey, Herb McCormick recounts their remarkable sailing career-from their early days in Southern California to their two circumnavigations to their current life in a quiet cove in New Zealand. Through interviews with their families, friends, and critics, McCormick delves deeply into the couple's often-controversial opinions, sometimes-tenuous marriage, and amazing list of accomplishments. As Long as It's Fun is as much a love story as it is a sea yarn, and, like all such stories, it's not without complications . . . which makes it not only a sailing tale but also a human one.