Articles

By Mark Orr who had the first grp Strider - see the Articles pages for full reports.

First are excerpts from his 3 Peaks race report "... the wind built to a steady Force 6, with a wind against the tide situation accentuating the size and steepness of the seas. The conditions were quite horrific for Scorpion, flying across waves at a steady 9.8 knots, crashing into breaking crests and, generally, going like a racehorse with the bit well and truly between her teeth"

On the next leg "To say that we roared along would be an understatement. Speeds of 14 knots were not unusual. Despite a lumpy sea, we raced along never lifting a hull in the steadily increasing wind. It was the sail of a lifetime, multihull sailing at its best. At an average speed of 11 knots, it was not long before we started catching the monohulls.. we motored into the harbor to find we were the first in"

Next an excerpt where he writes about sailing singlehanded across the North Sea in a rising gale. "Three hours of exhilarating sailing followed, that reaffirmed my love of multihulls, their speed, seaworthiness and ease of handling- even If the small ones like Scorpion are wet! We roared across or through the waves, throwing water everywhere as Scorpion thrived on the conditions. At one stage I overtook a heavily laden Russian Merchantman whose watch-keeper came out onto his bridge to survey the madness before him and to give a friendly wave. It was great."

Tod W writes: "I bought Strider no.49 in Feb 2000, fitted her out a bit for cruising and had a wonderful first season of sailing. My 500 mile round trip single handed Portsmouth to Scilly and back in July/August was fabulous. I passed a Strider Club at Start Point at 1300 on 12th August 2000 my way back, called him on VHF but no response. Who was it ? I continued across Lyme Bay 11 hours under spinnaker! I am getting to know the Strider and she sailed well."

Bob wrote: " I'm excited to say that my Strider went in the water today!! I bet you're pleased to get the first letter from me with no questions in it! We had a standard Strider rig made which is all set to put up, and my sails are due in two weeks. So we're excited to see everything come together and to start using the boat.

I really had a good time building the boat. I spent on average a couple of hours daily for 22 months. We will have it sailing for $5500.  Thanks for the nice job you did with the Strider plans and for all your thought and sailing experience that went into the design. I hope you have time to sail to!"

Yachting Monthly "Once on the water she provides exciting sailing as well as giving a safe ride for inshore cruising weekends or holidays for a young family"

Yachting World "Strider is a fast, light, exhilarating day sailer, great fun to sail"

Dick Newick in Wooden Boat Magazine "Builders of this racer/cruiser should produce a craft that will give them a great deal of pleasure and very little grief"

In May 2008 I received the following email from a Strider Turbo sailor in Zimbabwe

"We had great winds. All just right for Cosmos who has never gone as well ~~~~~ She had no problem with the two Farrier 27's In one race we won by an hour !! that was in a race of 200 min !!"

Then from a later race report

"What great racing with four Striders on the water & Farrier 27 which we beat easily, and now Tim O'Leary has launched his new Farrier that he scaled up 15% and the sails 20% up! It went well, but we still beat him over 7 races."

More from a UK owner:

"I had my first sail on my newly bought Strider a few days ago. I am more use to keelboats like 22ft Sonatas, Limbo 6.6 and the likes. The boat was fast, 10.9 knots and tacking through 85 degrees, measured on GPS. All of this using no spinnaker, brilliant performance in light winds.

What a days sailing! I wish I had discovered these boats years ago"

And another UK owner "My Strider recorded 21.6knots of boat speed when sailing back from Northern Ireland"

BM "The boat is absolutely brilliant. I have had her for 2 seasons now and regularly race in double figures, top speed so far has been 17.4 knots taken from GPS."