25' Gartside Power Cruiser (2005) - DIANA IV

A DIANA IV update post Covid: We’ve installed a ‘new’ (used) GPS/chartplotter monitor after our last one went bad during the Covid summer’s cruise. We were in deep fog when it started giving indecipherable readings in the middle of a passage across Jericho Bay. Thus backup charting, navigation, timing and compass skills came to the fore. Thanks goodness the first mate/navigator/lookout was there to help. The now-working monitor has a new chip with even better features and updated buoy locations. We’ve also had new aft canvas made after the original Sunbrella served well enough for fifteen years but had weakened to the stage that resewing wasn’t worth it. It’s a nice gray color that matches the cabin sides better. A battery monitor, an ACR and a few new LED overhead lights have improved things too. After years of waiting, permitting and saving we and our wonderful, generous neighbors have shared the costs of having a pier, ramp and floats erected on our shorefront. We can now keep our boats at the floats regardless of the height of tide. They own a 21’Lyman runabout, a Manhasset Bay One-Design, a 36′ Penbo cruiser and a 51′ Dettling. They cruise to Florida/Bahamas and back in winter aboard the Dettling. In the spring DIANA IV’s topsides will be wooded and repainted by ‘our guy’, a real pro. It’s time to switch out the heat exchanger for a new spare, renew the coolant and have the transmission checked over. After this fall’s winterizing. the old oil went out for analysis by Blackstone. It showed normal (i.e., little) wear. New additions when the weather warms will be a remote-controlled tiller pilot and if I can find a good one, a remotely operated (by a fob) inboard diesel engine cutoff switch. Other projects to follow are building some small boats: a new pram tender and a couple of double-enders for our four grandchildren… Gartside designs of course! DIANA IV was originally designed and built by Paul Gartside for a Canadian couple as CURLEW II, a custom design for cruising the Pacific Northwest out of Paul’s Vancouver Island boatyard. The owners traveled from their home in Hamilton on Lake Ontario for a few weeks’ cruise each summer. When Paul moved to Nova Scotia (and now Long Island, NY) they had the boat shipped east where he continued to care for her as they explored those waters. After a while their plans changed and we purchased her to replace a 25′ Lyman hardtop which had been in our family for fifty years. (The Lyman was DIANA III, preceded by DIANA II, a 24′ open launch built locally in 1939. The first DIANA was a coasting schooner that served the family merchandising business carrying cargo to and from Boston and Boothbay in the 1800s.)

DIANA IV is a well-built delightful boat for cocktail cruises and family day trips to nearby islands, much as the previous DIANA motorboats were. She’s also suitable for longer cruises for two Downeast most summers. She has a vee-berth, sink, head, radar/GPS, chart table, DSC VHF, ice box, propane stove, portable heater, comfortable seating and two helms: a wheel in the cabin and tiller aft. Because the engine is a vee-drive and located under an engine box/flat at the aft end of the cockpit she’s open for full-headroom walking fore and aft without climbing around an engine box. Other advantages are that she can be fully enclosed against cold weather, rain, and bugs. She’s also small enough that we can store and maintain her ourselves. I can’t imagine ever selling her although a few admirers have asked.