New Barge Roils Water in Avalon

For nearly 50 years, Robert Sherrill’s grimy boat repair barge floated in the teal harbor of Avalon, in front of the casino that stars in most Catalina postcards.

Even as the vessel grew from squat to tri-level, no one seemed to worry -- until one morning in early August, when Sherrill replaced it with what looked like a floating condo.

“It looks like he went from the back bay of Wilmington to Beverly Hills,” said Avalon Harbor Master Brian Bray.

Sherrill’s new repair barge is painted ivory. It has picture windows and arched balconies. Above the ground-level business are two floors of living space: four apartments meant to house Sherrill’s family and guest mechanics.

And ever since it slid into the crescent-shaped harbor, it has generated ardent debate among the island’s 3,500 residents and mainland boaters.

There are those who fume at Sherrill, saying he has ruined the view. Others rail against the town government for not putting an end to Sherrill’s plan during construction. And plenty of islanders worry that the barge portends a future Avalon where people are priced off the land and into the water, into an offshore neighborhood or worse, a floating trailer park.

“Who wouldn’t want ... an apartment on the water in Avalon?” asked Stacey A. Otte, executive director of the Catalina Island Museum in the casino.

Such questions have prompted the City Council to begin drafting an ordinance that would clearly define the rules for living on the water off Catalina.

Sherrill says he is bewildered by the criticism. He thought he was improving the view by updating the old barge he inherited from his father, with its prison-gray paint and tools dangling from all sides. His aim, he said, was to echo the casino with arches, a terracotta roof and paint that complemented the Art Deco building’s creamy tones.

“I thought everybody was going to cheer at getting rid of the old barge,” he said.

Sherrill’s Marine Services has been a fixture of Catalina for decades. His father bought the barge in the late 1950s from a guy named “Smitty” -- and even then it was old, Sherrill said. The Sherrill family had a Long Beach boat repair business, but also spent summers at Avalon Harbor in what was then a seasonal business. From the age of 11, Robert Sherrill worked on the barge and often slept on its spartan cots. In 1984, he bought the barge from his father.

At first, Sherrill’s family lived in an Avalon condo, but he sold it a few years ago and moved to Temecula. He decided to move back, he said, after the business became a full-time venture and a partner couldn’t run it anymore. But now his family can’t afford any property on the island, Sherrill said.

He said the workers on whom the island depends can no longer afford to live there. As for worries that a lot of people will suddenly start living in the harbor, Sherrill said they’re nonsense because of the cost of Avalon moorings, many of which sell for more than $1 million.

Sherrill said he made his plans clear from the start, telling the harbor master about the construction and about his intention to move his wife, two teenagers and dog on board, into an 800-square-foot, third-floor apartment. He said he described his plan to split the 800-square-foot second floor into three units to house visiting mechanics and boat captains who staff the business’ 24-hour vessel assistance service and help tackle ballooning demand in warmer months.

Harbor Master Bray disputes this, saying that Sherrill told him the bottom two floors would be repair and vessel rescue offices, and the top floor would be for on-call boat captains and mechanics. No one is living on the boat now, however.

In November, the City Council held a public hearing on whether to pull Sherrill’s Marine Services’ permit. It voted not to do so, instead ordering Sherrill to work with the harbor commission to improve the look of the new barge. The council barred anyone from living on the vessel until Sherrill and the commission reach an agreement.

For now, the barge’s interior remains unfinished. Sherrill and his family, according to Sherrill, are living in close quarters on a 40-foot boat they own.

Meanwhile, everywhere they go, they hear talk about the barge. Avalon is just like “Peyton Place,” Sherrill said. “People just love to have something to talk about.”

And they keep talking -- in taverns, in public hearings, in Internet chat rooms.

Some details are undisputed, including Sherrill’s visit to the harbor master a year ago. He showed Bray, who has jurisdiction over the water, a drawing of how the new barge would look. Bray says he never asked how tall the barge would be. His main concern was making sure the harbor remained navigable.

But Bray said he notified the city attorney, who less than two weeks later wrote Sherrill a letter stating that his new barge could be 3 feet longer at each end but must otherwise remain the same overall size as the old one.

Sherrill said construction on his barge began in January, in plain view. He didn’t think adding height would be a problem, he said, because he was so sure the tidier vessel would be popular. But as the barge grew taller, it caused enough stir to prompt the harbor master to visit with a measuring tape. When he found that it was 7 feet taller, the city attorney sent Sherrill a second letter.

“But at that point,” Sherrill said, “it was a week before I had to put the barge into the water or miss high tide for three more months, and the heavy rains had put construction way behind. I was losing money in business.”

So on Aug. 18, at 6:30 a.m. he had the new barge towed out to its mooring, 250 feet from the casino.

Mayor Ralph Murrow said he remembers jogging along the waterfront and being stopped by residents pointing toward the water. He said many of them were wagging their fingers.

People spoke angrily about Sherrill sneaking the barge in “under cover of darkness” -- a charge he disputes, saying that 6:30 a.m. was well after sunrise.

Amid the Spanish-style waterfront shops with bright Catalina tile, and up the hilly streets full of cottages so close that people can’t paint their sides, many are still angry.

David Creigh, owner of Lloyd’s of Avalon Confectionery overlooking the bay, said the barge is “an abomination” imposed on the town by someone who gambled that he could get away with it -- and thus far has.

“You can’t not see it from anywhere in the harbor,” Creigh said Wednesday.

Sherrill’s supporters argue that he made an honest mistake that City Hall didn’t help him avoid. The pro-barge camp also scoffs at complaints about the new barge blocking the view of the casino.

As for worries that the barge might ruin future postcards, they make Sherrill sigh.

For years, he has examined postcards of the casino and rarely found his family’s barge.

Photographers, he says, simply airbrushed out the old boat.