It’s been fashionable lately to bash 2016, and I think all those satirists have it right. Charlie the standard poodle. Dan Corchero. Alzhiemers. David Bowie (yea, up yours, cancer!). Cracked spreader on Ravenswing’s first windy day. Americans disgracing ourselves in Presidential politics. To cap it off, in the wee hours of Dec15 our beautiful 100+ yr old back yard Valley Oak with no warning fell on the house. We THANK GOD that its trajectory hit the back wall of the master bedroom where Jeanne slept, and not the sidewall that faced the tree. Eight feet to the left and it could have been lethal. I was asleep at Dad’s house, and Jeanne’s phone call at 2am was so painful. 90+mph up the 101, to find SRFire in our driveway. Daylight revealed five big holes in the roof and most of the rear wall damaged. Subsequent inspection found 12 roof trusses will have to be replaced, plus removal of subfloor in the kitchen to fix broken floor joists.

By 8am a heavy rainstorm moved in, making the tree removal and tarping work dangerous. And those holes let a LOT of water get in to the interior walls and flooring.
Anthony from Bartlett Tree Service is fearless. This shot is him roped to our “other oak”, hanging over the edge of the damaged second story roof, nailing the tarp in place.

The insurance company initially tried to cut Bartlett’s bill in half, but it all got properly compensated. All four bedrooms, one bathroom and the family room / kitchen have drywall and flooring damage, plus those 12 trusses mean over half the roof is coming off this winter. Yuck.
The small shed housing all the boat build tools and supplies was caved in. Amusingly we had built total overkill shelving in there this fall, from the deconstructed hull trollies. The massive shelving protected everything while the shed roof and walls failed. One big boat part – the boarding ladder / staircase was on a table outside the shed, awaiting final paint. The tree directly crushed that table so we assumed the boat stairs were now smashed below grade. A few days after the storm we set out to pick through the rubble.
Amazing – only a minor dent on one tread, and that’ll stay as a momento.

We have to empty and vacate the house for 4-6months. So the holidays were all about cleaning, sorting, donating and packing. Thankfully there have been a couple of nice sailing afternoons worked in. Colin’s first time aboard was a cold, crisp day with enough breeze to get Ravenswing moving nicely. We very much look forward to warm days sailing as a family in 2017.

Recall from last month the issues Drew found with our big jib. A good phone call with Keith pointed out the importance of tacking the sail way down at the deck, and using the full width of our jib car tracks. Making all of these tweaks significantly fixed the problems and we’re confident proceeding as-made with the sail. Basically, when it gets bad enough to be an interference issue up at the top diamonds, it’s probably time to reef that sail anyway. (Keith – I owe you a call back; your message was right after the tree fell!)  This works much better…

All the house drama trumped any holiday break progress on the boat’s electrical supply and dodger systems. They’ll be Jan/Feb work now. Stay tuned.
A few days after Colin and Griffin’s sail, Vanessa, Joe, RickH and I took Dad for his first cruise. I have a photo of him from 60 years ago where his parents launched their SoCal built John Alden sloop Vela. Six decades later it was great to hand him the tiller to the second ‘cartersboat’. He was thrilled at how light and responsive the boat steers. (Dad, now I’m glad I didn’t have you aboard in the summer when the helm was scary heavy to operate!)

Colin is on the plane back to Virginia now; Griffin has two more weeks of college break time, and we’re all so thankful to be healthy and safe with 2016 closed out. Come sail with us in ’17 – just holler.

And because after all, this is the internet, we’ll end with a gratuitous kitty shot. The very best cat in the world, Miss Frida, is angling to be the boat mascot. With whiskers like these, who can resist?