Stormy Port : Technically, the Reseda boat builder is in deep water. But he has sailed clear before.

Steve Schleder has this advice for people who drive past the big, hulking boat next to his house in Reseda: “Keep your eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel.”

But passers-by on busy Vanowen Street can hardly help but notice Schleder’s unfinished, 50-foot-high, concrete-hulled boat. The boat has been a curiosity for at least 17 years in the neighborhood of single-family homes less than a mile from the West Valley Municipal Building.

Time may be running out on the 37-year-old Schleder’s job of building the boat on property he rents from a Granada Hills couple.

Last year, after a neighboring landowner complained about clutter in the yard around the boat, Schleder was ordered by the city’s Building and Safety Department to remove the craft.

After marshaling support from several other neighbors who said the boat’s longevity made it a sort of local landmark, Schleder appealed and was given a one-year extension, which expired Nov. 8.

Boat building is a violation of the property’s residential zoning, said Tony Giannini, senior building inspector for the West San Fernando Valley. The city notified Schleder that he must remove the boat and is waiting to see whether he will seek another delay, Giannini said.

Meanwhile, no one is complaining, according to Giannini and a spokeswoman for City Councilwoman Joy Picus, who represents the area.

In fact, one reason Schleder received an extension in the first place was the “substantial neighborhood support” he received, Giannini said.

“I’d like it to stay here,” said Abraham Amireh, who, like several of Schleder’s neighbors, remembers the boat being there on the day he moved into his house. If the boat were ever moved, “it should go downtown,” Amireh said. “It’s a landmark.”

“It’s been here all my life,” said Aaron Klamon, 14. “It doesn’t bug me. . . . I don’t think it should be removed.”

Another neighbor said the boat is a useful landmark for visitors trying to find her house.

But not all of the neighbors have been so charmed by Schleder’s boat. Anson Burlingame, a longtime land-use activist who is a planning deputy to Councilman Joel Wachs, owns a house across the street. Burlingame estimates he could earn $100 to $150 more per month in rent for the house if not for the boat.

Last year, Burlingame was having trouble renting the house at all and blamed Schleder’s overgrown weeds and storage of two partially dismantled cars on the property.

“It really looked bad,” Burlingame said. “People would look at it and say, ‘This is ridiculous.’ ”

Burlingame’s complaint to city officials prompted the order that Schleder clear the weeds and clutter and that he remove the boat, although Burlingame said the boat was not what he complained about.

“I’m sorry that it had even come up to that issue,” said Burlingame, adding that he doesn’t plan to press the matter now that Schleder has cleaned up the property.

Building inspectors also believe Schleder has satisfactorily cleared the weeds and clutter and has been earnestly trying to finish the boat, Giannini said.

Despite the fact that no one seems bothered by it, the boat will have to go if Schleder doesn’t obtain some sort of new delay, Giannini said.

As for Schleder, he declined to be interviewed, saying past newspaper accounts of him and his boat were unfair. All he would say about the boat is that, “It’s there.”