PARDEY FOUNDRY PATTERNS FOR TALEISIN
When Lin and Larry Pardey were completing their cruising sailboat, Taleisin of Victoria, in the early 1980’s, they found they could not buy hardware that was appropriate for the Lyle Hess designed, engineless cutter. They spent four days making forty wooden foundry patterns and had a local foundry cast the bronze fittings. By the time the 29’ 6” Taleisin was completed, three other builders were creating sister-ships to the handsome Hess cutter. “When a builder approached me and asked if I minded loaning her the patterns, I was really jazzed,” Larry relates. “I told her, of course, these are tools, and tools should be used.” Since then, the wooden patterns have been shipped to seven different countries and used by approximately forty different builders.
As the world's most experienced and knowledgeable cruising couple, with 200,000 miles of blue water under their keel, Lin and Larry are often on the water and out of touch. And, based in New Zealand when they are on shore, it proved a challenge to arrange for the management and shipping of the foundry patterns.
A fortunate encounter during Lin and Larry Pardey’s visit to Sausalito, California in 2007 introduced them to the perfect home for the patterns. After anchoring off of Sausalito, and in true serendipitous cruising fashion, they ran into Mark Welther, executive director of the Spaulding Wooden Boat Center. “Do you have time to take a look at our center?” Mark asked them, “It’s only a few blocks from here.”
That brief tour turned into a three week long visit and haul-out at the Spaulding Boatworks, which remains one of the most traditional boat yards in California. Coincidentally, during their visit, final arrangements were being made by the Spaulding Center to share space with the Arques School of Traditional Boatbuilding, run by Bob Darr. The first joint project of the Spaulding Center and the Arques School—the restoration of Freda, the oldest private sailing yacht on the West Coast—was underway in the main shed. As part of his boat building program, Bob Darr had set up a small foundry to educate his students in bronze casting. Of course, this led to a discussion of Taleisin’s foundry patterns, and soon it was decided to loan them to the center, with the agreement that they would be available for use by interested builders—either to be cast by the school foundry, or, with a deposit and a handling fee, by a foundry of the builder's choosing. Within five days, the first of the patterns, the dinghy chock bases, had gone out to be used by the owner of a Bristol Channel Cutter on Bainbridge Island in Washington.
The Foundry Patterns
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| Taleisin's foundry patterns available for use |
View larger photo with details of foundry patterns
You can find more information about these patterns in books and videos by the Pardeys. The last chapter of Larry Pardey's Details of Classic Boat Construction contains a discussion and diagrams of these patterns. Most of the bronze fittings created using these patterns can be seen on the Pardey's DVD's, Get Ready to Cruise and Get Ready to Cross Oceans. These books and DVD's, as well as many more about Lin and Larry's extensive sailing experiences, are available at their Web site: Sailing with Lin & Larry Pardey.
These patterns are on long term loan to the Spaulding Wooden Boat Center by the Pardeys. For information, or to arrange to use a pattern or patterns, please contact Mark Welther at the Spaulding Center. A deposit is required for the off-site use of a pattern. A handling charge to cover the expenses incurred by the center will be deducted from the deposit upon the return of the pattern.
