Any day now, Catalina Island's only big boat-repair outfit will be barging out of town.
Sherrill's Marine Services, a family-run business for decades in Avalon Harbor, must be gone by Feb. 5 -- the latest wrinkle in a dispute that has roiled the island town of 3,500 residents since summer.
The impending departure of Robert Sherrill's tri-level repair barge -- which grew from a greasy houseboat into what resembles a floating condo -- may settle a matter the owner feared would wind up in a costly, bitter court fight with the city of Avalon.
"Each time we talked, the city or some other person had a different idea about what I was supposed to do to make [the barge] look better," Sherrill said. "I was not going to be able to please 3,500 people."
In the near future, the barge will be taken to Los Angeles Harbor and stored. Sherrill does not know where it will go from there. "I wasn't going to tear it apart and rebuild it," he said. "Someone will want it. I just have to find them."
The waters around Sherrill's Marine Services rig were calm until one morning in August, when the sun rose on the island two dozen miles off Long Beach and residents discovered that a much taller barge had replaced the old one. The new vessel was anchored to Sherrill's 60-foot mooring off the landmark Casino featured on many Catalina postcards.
It had arched windows and balconies. It was painted in creamy hues -- all to better blend in with the Art Deco Casino, Sherrill thought. It was bigger to house his wife and two children, as well as mechanics brought in during peak summer months when the island's population swells and as many as 500 boats jam the harbor.
Some people hated it. Others stormed City Council chambers to defend the business. Both sides wrote letters and signed petitions. Boaters on and off the island were particularly supportive of Sherrill and his part of the business that rescues vessels around the clock.
Some residents said they weren't crazy about the stout houseboat, but they blamed city officials for allowing Sherrill to spend about $700,000 to build the barge before deciding that it had to go.
The city claimed it had told Sherrill that he could replace his old barge but that it could not grow substantially in size.
Sherrill, who grew up working on his father's barge until he bought him out years ago, says he never thought that replacing his 23-foot-high barge with one 7 feet taller would bother anyone. The boat's top two floors include 1,600 square feet of living space.
