ship's log of strider

[sailingvesselstrider]

playing with potential paint jobs :-)

long time no post! sorry about that. strider’s coming along, slow but sure like. stripping the paint out of the nooks and crannies has been a job and three quarters for sure, but it’s nearly done. lots of beautiful cedar interior exposed. so eventually i’ll be painting! and it occurred to me, the paint job doesn’t have to be a solid color!

i like the tradition of eyes on a boat, and i discovered “dazzle camouflage,” and of course there’s the water strider theme to play with... all sorts of stuff! i could also go with a lotr Strider theme, but i am not sure what that’d look like.

what do you think?

[sailingvesselstrider]

working on stripping the paint. i used citristrip on the port side, and totalboat on the starboard, because i happened to have both lying around. i read the instructions, but i’d used citristrip before, and just treated them the same. i opened the garage door for ventilation, and made sure not to get any of either on me.

totalboat worked better, though not by a lot.

i had previously written a post which claimed i was going to use totalboat going forward, but then i had a headache for two days straight, and read the totalboat container again, whereupon i found a small warning, “may cause cancer.”

of course, i’m not going to believe citristrip when it claims to be nontoxic, but as i said, i’ve used it before without reaction, and that headache was a doozy. i’ll be sticking with the citristrip from now on.

[sailingvesselstrider]

my dad used to fly small planes, and i had always liked this image, which, while humorous, was also sobering. this christmas he referenced it in the note attached to the vhf radio the family bought for me (/strider).

[sailingvesselstrider]

this is what happens when one takes a sawzall straight through a silicon bronze screw.

[sailingvesselstrider]

it’s been a long time. i think last time i posted, i had just managed to cut the deck all the way off. it never actually came off, though. we strapped it down for transport, i moved into the casita, the boat was outside, i started school, then the boat and i moved into the garage, christmas break came, and i finally got my workshop and living situation somewhat in order, so now the deck is on the floor. Whisper, who has been napping in the boat, is not happy with me.

[sailingvesselstrider]

ballast

moving from the casita to the garage. last time i moved, i definitely gave away the majority of my books. somehow, i have amassed yet another collection. this is a problem for a sailor. i’ve decided the only way for me to reconcile this issue with my chosen life is for my next boat to be book-ballasted, or to give strider a second floor of books.

[sailingvesselstrider]

i can’t believe i didn’t post this when it happened, but my cousin’s friend caught me sailing!

[sailingvesselstrider]

[sailingvesselstrider]

meet the O’Day 23′! a production sailboat featuring a pop top which surrounds the mast! i feel so justified! while this style of pop top met with controversy and did not stay in production long, i have not found a single negative account about the boat.

[sailingvesselstrider]

from my days living on strider on the willamette in portland :-) strider was not a comfortable living space at this point, but my spot between the islands that the other big boats couldn’t get to was gorgeous, and i was quite proud of it. at this point i think it’s doubtful that i’ll live there again, but who knows?

[sailingvesselstrider]

very surprising las vegas salvation army score that's been on strider's list for since we started sailing!

[sailingvesselstrider]

it's probably being raised in a capitalist society, but i feel like a list of things someone wants can say a lot about them :-/

[sailingvesselstrider]

alright…. wooooo this is a big one. honestly, i’ve been afraid of posting this for fear of the backlash. i cut strider’s deck off. i’m replacing it with a pop top. it’s not like it was a one-of-kind Bolger relic that the designer himself was quite proud of... anyway, the deck’s off, and strider remains on its trailer in beatty. i’m in las vegas still, trying to be helpful while my bro is on chemo, so boat progress is quite slow. that said, the above pictures, especially the last two, represent my finalized (at least until i start construction, heh) plan of action for strider’s new deck/standing headroomable cabin. my intention is to go make a template of the existing deck and the top of the hull, take those back to vegas, and build the deck here, cause i can’t really get away. the new deck will be cold-molded cedar like the hull, and my parents have donated their old tent trailer (they intend to make it a flat bed), which will provide some clamping latches and probably the lift mechanism and four support legs. a stainless post will support the bow section in the down and up positions (i’ve focused more energy on the mechanisms needed to keep the deck down while underway than up while at rest), as will pins in the mast and ladders from the cockpit to the deck. reinforcements around the hull will create a semi-labyrinth seal when the hull is clamped to it, and detent pins around the circumference will spread the load, ensuring an even seal. just for shits and to make everything harder for myself, i think i’m going to take this opportunity to make the forward hatch a flush one.

[sailingvesselstrider]

fiberglass, oar ports, lights, bed, exposed wood(!), etc.. so many projects and details! seeing wood though, instead of crappy white paint, really restored my spirits :-) and used lights that seem quite fitting for strider were a steal on ebay! the oarlock sockets, i’m ashamed to admit, are new. the bed is coming along. mom salvaged a bunch of plywood, which is extremely helpful. since it isn’t marine plywood, i’ve painted it and wrapped it in painted canvas, which i also think looks nice. magnetic chess pieces i found at a thrift store will bring that chess board to life! mom also salvaged the sheet metal that i’ve sheathed that with. the middle section of the bed will raise to be a table. hopefully all of these projects will converge as they finish, and the boat will go from zero to a hundred all at once!

[sailingvesselstrider]

here’s the working list in priority order(ish) of things i’d like to complete before strider goes back on the water

[sailingvesselstrider]

i think i may have done it! the last one was kind of a fluke, and is certainly an amalgam of a lot of my own experimenting, and a lot of staring at fonts, many Tolkein-inspired, several credited to Nancy Lorenz.

[sailingvesselstrider]