Ray Aldridge
Ray Aldridge has been a studio potter for most of his life, a writer for a
long time, and a boat designer for a short time. His novels and short
stories have been widely published, and he is the book editor for Living
Aboard magazine.
He's been sailing the Gulf of Mexico for over 30 years, in a variety of boats,
starting with DoubleDare, a 27 foot catamaran designed by James Wharram.
Though he subsequently owned a series of monohulls, Doubledare remained his
favorite, until he designed and built his little trailerable cruising
catamaran. Slider has now become his all-time favorite, with her
ergonomically correct seating inside the hulls, her stability, and her
handiness. She was built to demonstrate the comfort and safety advantages of
small open catamarans; there are no similar designs available. She was named
after the red-eared slider, "a deceptively fast aquatic turtle."
Ray maintains a website (http://slidercat.com/blog/wordpress) which contains a
number of articles about Slider, her photos and videos, her cruises, and a
growing collection of base camp descriptions for small boat cruisers.
He's currently building the prototype for a new car-top catamaran.
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