Hawaii venture over, noted rower peddles her ride
Ocean rower Lia Ditton, who rowed alone for 86 days from San Francisco to Hawaii last year, is selling her beloved boat. Wouldbe buyers should know it is a bit more than gently used.
The 21foot craft is a decade old, made mainly of plywood and Kevlar, and designed to carry a single intrepid rower. It has accumulated hundreds of days on the open ocean, carrying rowers on excursions ranging from the Canary Islands to Japan. At one point in 2016, having been abandoned at sea a year earlier during a hurricane, it washed up in Dublin, having floated unmanned for 92 days.
“In boat terms, it’s what we call a survivor,” Ditton said.
The asking price for the craft, which has been drydocked for months, is $ 48,000. New ocean rowboats run as high as $ 160,000, she said.
Ditton, 40, who lives in Santa Cruz County, is its third owner. For years, she has piloted the boat around San Francisco Bay while training for bigger trips at sea. In 2018, she rowed from San Francisco to Santa Barbara, 12 days at sea. In 2019, she spent 25 days rowing down the West Coast from Portland, Ore.
Then last summer she set out on her longest journey yet, rowing solo to Hawaii. It proved to be a harrowing trip; Ditton capsized twice and nearly drowned before pulling into Oahu in September.
Ditton’s ultimate goal is a solo row all the way across the Pacific Ocean, from Japan to San Francisco. She hopes to set out in 2023. But to do that she’ll need a newer, lighter boat. The craft for sale weighs 600 pounds; Ditton is hoping to build one closer to 350 pounds.
“I can’t make this one any lighter and believe me, I’ve tried,” she said.
The boat is outfitted with solar panels and covered in a colorful vinyl wrap featuring original cartoon sea creatures drawn by Wes Archer, one of the original animators of the television show “The Simpsons.”
Parting with her boat after
so many adventures was not an easy decision, Ditton said. It has saved her life at sea, and she has tended to its needs daily.
“These boats are a passport to freedom, to the ideas and dreams that you’ve had,” Ditton said. “It’s taken a while to understand that relationship and, I suppose, let go.”
She hopes it finds a new
home with another eager ocean rower.
“There are very few ocean rowboats in the U. S.,” Ditton said. “Someone should snap this up.”