The Self-Sufficient Sailor

Excellent book, it is obvious these two have a lot of experience with what they are writing about.

I read this book fifteen years ago, then bought the new edition because someone borrowed my old one. Yup, as the previous reviewer said, the Pardyes have only updated this edition, adding maybe 30 percent new info. But their message is as modern as today. Only by knowing how to get along without al the fancy gadgets can you be have a chance to feel completely in charge of your cruising life. You may never need to get along without your engine, or without your electronics, but if they do fail you will not feel stuck,if you think through what they say. By the way, I happened to go to their website and am amazed at the wonderful life they have made for themselves, a small but grand cruising boat and a boatyard and home in New Zealand that makes a perfect safe haven that I would love to have for my later years.

Lin and Larry's reprint/update is well worth the investment. Yes, the chapters here, like many of their books, started off life as magazine articles and, yes, they were published many years ago, but that is completely beside the point. Their advice is timeless because it deals with real knowledge and experience about techniques and material that will never go out of practical use. Varnish, sailcloth, kerosene lamps, dinghies, three strand rope, planes and chisels, none of these or the hundreds of other topics will ever disappear from sailing, unlike a long dissertation on LORAN or RDF or epoxy, or other topics rapidly becoming obsolete. A hundred years from now there will still be sailors on engineless boats with kerosene lamps and sextants, because simple things work. Period. Always have, always will. If this truth appeals to you, then these are your books.

As usual, Lin and Larry Pardey have captured in their non-preachy, no-nonsense way the essence of cruising and surviving on the high seas...as well as when you drop the hook in a foreign port. This book is fairly old ('82) but they've done a good job of updating and adding info that applies to cruising in the 90s. I'm a fan because I've owned the big boats and now I've down-sized to the more manageable 30-footer range. So I know whereof they speak. Your chances of unhooking from the land are MUCH greater if you are not plowing every cent you make into a 40-45 foot boat. Life becomes sweeter when you manage on your own to make the repairs and adapt some fix-it scheme to your boat so it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I'm working my way through their books and I truly see them as the embodiment of the modern Hiscock.

I read the Pardey's Cost Conscious Cruiser first, then I met them at a seminar, listened to their absolute logic - they never said anyone else was wrong, but they did make it clear that people who write about fixing their boat too often, may have complicated their life beyond what they could handle. Self Sufficent sailor has more good advise, logical ideas and fun reading, not sure if it is better than Cost Conscious Cruiser, more like in addition to. The Pardeys made it clear at their seminar that they kept learning as they cruised. It is no wonder they need to write a new book every three or four years. Glad they take the time to do it.