Greg & Jeanne Carter live in Novato, California. We owned F27 #217 (sail number 69814 – yes, Aug 14 ’69 was the first day of Woodstock) for 5 years ’08-’12, after crewing for her previous (and once again current) owner Jim. Fantastic sailing aboard Origami since the late ’90’s are directly to blame for the F36 plunge.
Origami’s 2012 Three Bridge Fiasco, ahead of Yucca, with California Condor already finished about 10 minutes ahead – a great “then and now” crossing in front of Alcatraz
We found F36 #5’s 3 hulls on eBay in the fall of 2011. The hull builder had run out of steam. We became friends, and ultimately took over the building project. 2012-2016 passed working in a 1,000 sq ft workshop at a light-industry park about a mile from our Santa Rosa home. Finally in June 2016 we trucked all the finished, big parts to the Napa River for an assembly job and happy launch. Ravenswing sailed on San Francisco Bay her first three years, working out the kinks, including a broken mast. It’s all chronicled in the timeline of blog posts on this website. You can go back to see how she was built, sea-trialed, and in 2019, set free upon the Pacific Ocean.
Here are a few interior shots taken prior to this website:
https://cartersboat.com/about/an-f-boat-without-the-mouse-fur/
And the transport of the hulls to the Santa Rosa shop where we completed the build:
https://cartersboat.com/about/an-f-boat-without-the-mouse-fur/christmas-2011-move/
Farrier F36/F39 Ravenswing - Trimaran Sailing 
Currently building a shuttleworth 37( up dated 35).. Spent 12 years building a 65 foot tri which I sold some time ago. My son lives in Petaluma and would like to see your project next time I’m down if possible?
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Hi Geoffrey. Where are you building? Got any photos online? How did that big tri work out? And which month would you likely come here? Thx
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I am planning on being in Petaluma the week prior to 4th of July. I am working on getting the new project online to share but have not had time. At 63 feet it was possible but not easy to single hand, but in Puget sound we could do just fine with 2 crew. The problems was if something when wrong which luckily was seldom.
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Greg: we talked earlier about me visiting your build site. I’m down in Petaluma until the 6 th. When would be convenient for you?
Geoffrey.
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Hi. Tomorrow is good, or Mon thru Thurs mornings.
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Hi Greg and Jeanne, my husband and I just took a road trip down from Montana to strictly sail hoping to see the new Farrier 33, but they sadly cancelled last minute. While in San Fran we visited with Jarred Brockway, whom we’ve chartered the corsair 31 in Mexico from ( Pierpoint sailing) and he told us about your blog and build. We happen to be in Santa rosa now for 2 more days before heading home, any chance we could visit with you and check your build out ? We’d be STOKED! I know your super busy so we’d keep it short😀
Thanks,
Martha and Jim
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Hi – sorry this is late. I was on a quick trip with our son to visit Univ of Mississippi. If you’re still in town call 707.486.3954
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Thanks for the reply, sorry we missed you, we just spent 2 long days on the road getting back. Good luck with the project, we’ll watch the blog with interest and hope to catch you at some other place and time. Best, Martha
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Hi Greg, I saw that you used latex paint on the interior surfaces and was wondering how it worked out for you, it is something that I would be interested in for my build.
Thanks John
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John, I’m very happy with the acrylic latex interior for ease of use, low cost and personal safety. The marine topsides paint fumes in an enclosed space are very dangerous and difficult to work with. But I used an eggshell finish and it is too matte/flat for areas that will get kicked or scuffed. I will likely redo with a semi gloss, and would suggest you try semi gloss first.
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Greg,
Would you be willing to come speak to our group about your building experiences? We’re a local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association, and many of us have similar experience in building airplanes using composite materials, with similar challenges (we’ve all faced the issue of surviving the painting process!) I think would be interesting and even instructive for our group to see how you’ve approached your project, which seems from the outside very similar in scope and nature to building a plane. Would you be interested in coming all the way down to Novato on a Tuesday night sometime to share your experience?
Thanks,
Ken Mercer (Rachel Mercer’s husband)
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Great to see you pop up here Ken! Yea that sounds like fun. The year before I started at Rachel’s office I was inspired at the hanger of my boss’ RV8 build-in-progress; that was a notch in the confidence about taking this project on. It’ll be good to compare. How many people come to your meetings? I’m thinking we do this a few months out when the boat is in the water, i.e. Ask the group to come see it first and then we go sit and talk.
Hit me back directly cartersboat at gmail.com
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Aloha!
Was wondering if you knew of any oldy but goodie tris in your area for sale? She needs to be a solid build and suitable for our family of four to live on. Of course, ideally a good sailor:) We’re up in Seattle! Btw, our mutual friend almost let us jump on the farrier 41 after you passed on her:)
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