Here’s the story of a very busy week finishing the big boat’s repaint work, and many maintenance & upgrade projects. Footage of being launched in the very big Travelift show why it’s challenging to find places that can haul our wide boat out of the water. But we always get it done somehow :) Dad would have liked this video.

Hello from Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico. Yea! Ravenswing is back in the water. Land-life interventions kept her “on the hard” for 15 months. She got plenty of refit, maintenance and upgrade work over the course of four trips I took to the boat yard, and I gotta say, she looks and feels great this evening. Ready to get some groceries tomorrow and head southbound on the Sea of Cortez. Her tracker has been turned back on, so if you want to get updates on our travels, including a bit of written commentary, go to the menu bar at the top here, just under the boat’s photo and click on tracking. The forecast looks like we might get some good downwind spinnaker running this week. It would be fantastic to fill the big chute and hit some sustained ‘teens boatspeed. We’ll see.

Meanwhile back home in California, I didn’t quite get the F25C back on the trailer, but she’s painted now and the rigging process is well underway. I’m loving that whole project, but truth be told, she’s second fiddle to the big sister, and the trailer-tri will now have to sit idle for another month while we get some sea miles made. Here’s how we made out on the paint job:

During the fall season, we kept at the detail work to prep the boat for a new paint job. Good quality boat paints are really expensive, upwards of $300/gallon. And the whole process is so laborious, it’s really worth doing it right the first time; you sure don’t want to have to repeat any of this because of unsatisfactory results. So this video will show how an extra couple of weeks beyond what i expected was necessary to get the good paint results we’ll look at next time. Sit through this one, and you’ll be rewarded with a better looking video next time. :)

In 1995 my sailing buddy Jim got me down to the lake to see her. His Hobie 16 was still in the garage, but things were about to change – we were going Fboatin’… from that first day sailing Origami on a tiny lake in southern Oregon, I’ve been hooked on the Ian Farrier-inspired folding trimarans. And now it’s time for our original adventure boat to bond with another family.

Origami is a 1991 Corsair Marine F27 Formula built in Chula Vista, CA, hull number 217. Purchased new by Harrison J. she was delivered to Whidbey Island, WA where he campaigned her very successfully throughout the Pacific Northwest racing scene. Four years later the opportunity came up to buy one of the big Water World movie tris, but he needed to sell Origami first. Jim’s purchase moved her to Medford, OR where he added her bold 90’s graphics package. And she’s been in the family, dry-sailed, ever since.

I crewed for Jim 1995 to 2009, mostly summer day sailing on her home lake in Oregon. I bought her from Jim so he could try a larger monohull, and Origami moved to San Francisco for five years of racing and coastal cruising. She continued to live on her trailer, with crane-launching. She got new standing rigging and the double-spreader upgrade. In ’13 I was deep into the F39 build and Jim sold the mono; he wanted her back, so Origami returned to Medford. She got new interior upholstery (upgraded soft cushions), a complete suit of sails, fresh nets and running rigging, all of which is in great sail-away condition. Only her spinnaker is original; that big origami bird sail continues to pull like a freight train.

Her basics are:

Doyle racing main & maxi-jib (not furling). Doyle screecher on Harken furler. The 3 sails built by Bill Columbo in Alameda, the most experienced Fboat sailmaker in the San Francisco area. Finish Line bowsprit kit, converted to tilt-up for easy furler attachment. F27 transom extensions and rudder fence. Factory galley; the small sink & alcohol stove, plus a custom made smaller table hanging off dagger trunk. Portapotty under the vee berth – no forward plumbing. Yamaha four stroke is about 12 years old now, always maintained and running fine. We deleted the heavy power tilt in favor of simple lifting tackle. The original Pacific trailer is in go-anywhere condition, with axle replacements, regular bearings / brakes / tires / lights work done over the years.

Origami today is a rare combination of as-delivered-from-Corsair and well maintained condition. She’s had three meticulous owners and we know exactly where she’s been every minute since new. She’s never been wrecked or modified in any structural manner. In 30 years, her repairs have been two daggerboard tip bottom-strikes, a bent pulpit from dipping the sprit in heavy seas, and a beef-up at the mast base pivot point.

She’s only known the west coast, racing all over the PNW, San Francisco and southern California waters. But mostly she’s spent the cold months under her cover and the warm months on Oregon fresh water lakes. We LOVE this boat, but Jim’s in his later 70’s now and is heading back to smaller, lighter Hobiecats. I’m too busy with Ravenswing and the F25C to take her back. And so, it’s time. To find a fresh new enthusiastic owner who wants a great boat, and promises her 3-decades caretakers she’ll get the queen’s treatment for many more years to come. She will pay it back with fantastic, easy to manage sailing.

Jim’s asking $35,000 / best offer. Email him at jdeggleston@msn.com with your questions and a phone number, or reach me 8am-8pm pacific time on seven-o-seven, four-eight-six, three-nine-five-four.

This week was all about knocking out a number of things that need to be done before we get serious about paint preparation. Trying to get all fabrication stuff done so we can focus in on the cosmetics. It’s a bit of a long road :) This video won’t have some big fancy conclusion, just here to pass your time…

This week was a big project to modernize how the boat holds up its mast. Out with the rusty steel bits, in with the newfangled carbon fiber. enjoy…

Here’s the first week spent starting into all the carbon fiber & fiberglassing work we’re going to do for repairing and modernizing this go-fast sailboat. One great thing about these trimarans is the big area of netting that lets you float above the water. Here we dive in to make the net connection to the boat better…

Well you know what they say, don’t troll Craigslist if you can’t handle what you can find… this one was actually a couple of years ago, but we hid it away in Anton & Fedi’s barn until this month, when the time finally came time to start the needed restoration. Here’s the story of acquiring the boat, and what’s currently in our back yard. I wonder who will agree it’s a good idea to add three more hulls to the family. This Farrier F25C is going to be a blast to sail :)

Yep, I left Ravenswing a few more months on the hard in Mexico so I could follow J-World Pablo aboard a big ‘ol downwind surfing sled to Hawaii! He captained the Offshore Racing Outreach boat Good Trouble as his J-World team was contracted to manage the 2023 Transpac trip for ORO, and invited me aboard as one of two watch captains. The new non-profit group provided the other watch captain, Marie, who also was registered with the race officials as the boat owner / manager. Marie had previously raced Transpac with Pablo aboard one of J-World’s premiere boats, Cazan. For this year’s edition, J-World had their flagship Hula Girl (turbo’d Santa Cruz 50), Cazan and our 56′ Alan Andrews design Good Trouble. GT had previously been Delicate Balance in San Francisco, but had sat unsailed for many years due to owners’ health issues. ORO bought the boat and did a total refit to begin their new program of bringing grand prix ocean racing opportunities to people generally not represented in sailboat racing. Even our gender mix (5 women, 4 men) made us a very different team than all other entries this year.

Yep, it’s a long video. It’s all the stuff I want to remember as an old man; sure hope YouTube sticks around a long time :) You can figure out how to fast forward if you get bored.

Back at home now, and I’m finishing up pieces for some minor interior upgrades on Ravenswing, plus buying more paint, so I can get back to the boat in the absolute hottest part of the summer and finish the yard work. All in hopes for a glorious fall & winter Mexico cruising season. Stay tuned for word from me on crew-position openings for late ’23 / early ’24 trips…

Stephen called with one of his, “hey, what are you doing tomorrow?” questions. Which of course means it’s going to be an interesting day. He came to San Francisco to buy three catamarans – that’s the easy part. Now he has to get them home…