Producer planned reality show on Abby Sunderland’s voyage

The parents of teenage sailor Abby Sunderland ran into their own squall Monday, answering criticism that her father was working on a reality TV show deal as the 16-year-old set off on her round-the-world trip.

Laurence Sunderland told reporters outside the family’s Thousand Oaks home that he had been approached about a reality TV show months ago with Magnetic Entertainment, a Studio-city based production company.

However, he said he cut ties with Magnetic a few weeks after Abby set off on her solo voyage due to a dispute with producers. The father said he wanted a show that would depict his family as a kind of modern-day Swiss Family Robinson, with “inspiring kids doing inspirational things.”

Their eldest son, Zac Sunderland, was 17 when he completed his own solo circumnavigation of the globe last summer, at the time the youngest sailor in the world to do so. Six months later, Abby boarded Wild Eyes, her 40-foot-sloop, and sailed out of Marina del Rey, intent on setting her own record.

She was rescued by Australian and French responders last week after heavy seas snapped off the boat’s carbon-fiber mast in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

The TV deal went sour just weeks into Abby’s journey, the father said, when the producers were unable to sell his concept. Sunderland said he learned that one of Magnetic’s partners was planning to take a different angle: that Laurence and his wife, Marianne, were sending their daughter on an all but certain death trip.

“They were assuming Abigail was going to die out there,” he said in a brief interview Monday.

Calls to the number listed on Magnetic’s website were not returned. The website lists a half-dozen projects in development, including three Sunderland-related pitches, a comic-book franchise and “Ropin’ With the Coopers,” a reality pilot about a family of rodeo artists.

News about the botched deal brought a fresh wave of criticism to the Sunderlands, a devout Christian couple who don’t watch TV and home-school their seven children — with another due any day.

“Abby Sunderland’s Dad Shopping a Reality Show — Is She Balloon Girl?” went the headline on Bonnie Fuller’s blog, Hollywood Life, in a typical post.

Commenters galore agreed, suggesting that the Sunderlands had negligently allowed the teenager to embark on the trip that was doomed from the start. “Why did Mr. Sunderland do so? To promote his idea of a ‘Sunderland’ reality show,’ ” wrote Kenneth W. Treuter on the Hollywood Life blog.

But the couple also have ardent defenders who admire the spirit of adventure that they are instilling in their children.

“Sooner or later you have to let go and trust that something — inner resilience, good karma, the skills you’ve tried to impart — carries your child through,” columnist Sandy Hingston wrote in Philadelphia Magazine. “That’s what Laurence Sunderland is telling the world.”

Sunderland, a career shipwright, said Monday that he had spent $250,000 financing Zac and Abby’s sailing trips. After Zac completed his voyage, the family produced a documentary called “Intrepid” that is for sale on the Internet.

They plan to do the same for Abby, the father said. Abby also sells T-shirts and other items to help pay for her trip, he said. He would have welcomed revenue from a reality TV show as long as it contained a positive message for families, he said.

“It’s good to see kids who are doing things other than playing on the computer or watching TV,” he said.

Abby is still about a day from the Kerguelen Islands, where she will transfer to another vessel that will take her to Reunion Island, a French possession east of Madagascar. From there, in about a week, she will make her way back to California, he said.

The young sailor has announced on her blog that she is already writing a book about her aborted adventure. Sunderland said his daughter doesn’t have a book deal or an agent — and neither does he.

“This isn’t about money,” he said. “It’s about a passion for sailing and loving your kids so much you want to be part of their dream.”

catherine.saillant@latimes.com