---
type: venture
status: active
owner: Rowan
updated: 2026-09-17
---

# Ophelia

<!-- src: interview with Rowan, 2026-09-05 -->

## This venture's folder

**Split out 2026-09-23 (ADR-31).**

- `projects/refit-and-splash.md` — **done**, splashed Saturday 19 September
- `projects/tomales-passage.md` — 26–27 September, three days out
- `projects/race-season.md` — 3 October, entry deadline still unknown
- `someday.md` — empty

**The yard invoice stays in this note and in `money`.** It did not close when the
refit closed, and filing it under a finished project would have retired it by
association. `hobbs-bg9`, P0.

## What it is
A 1971 Ericson 35, mid-refit at a yard in Alameda. A separate venture from
Rivet Yard and the Norton because it has a different clock: **a season and a
splash date** (ADR-05).

## State now
<!-- src: Rowan, weekly review 2026-09-06, relaying three Ellis Wright voicemails left Sat 5 Sep -->

- **Hauled out Saturday 5 September** — booked and paid. Done.
- **Rudder bearing cleared customs Friday 4 September. It reaches the yard
  Wednesday 9 September.** The customs block is closed.
- **SPLASH CONFIRMED: Saturday 19 September.** <!-- src: Rowan, Saturday 2026-09-12 -->
  Rowan called Ellis on **Saturday 12 September** and told him yes on the $3,400
  rudder rate. His words:

  > "Ellis: called him, approved the $3,400, splash confirmed for the 19th."

  Decided 7 September — *"Tell Ellis yes on the thirty-four hundred, splash on the
  nineteenth, do it"* <!-- src: inbox/_archive/2026-09-07/2026-09-07-voice-1.md --> —
  and executed on the 12th, **the fifth day**. `hobbs-8wl` closed. The date is now
  Ellis's commitment as well as Rowan's, not a conditional offer.
- **Yard bill: 52 days as of Saturday 5 September, when Ellis last named a
  number. By count that is 59 days today** — the count is derived from his figure
  and the date, not from a fresh statement by the yard. Rowan's read of that third
  voicemail: *"he was polite about it in the way people are when they've stopped
  being polite about it internally."*
  **On the 12 September call, Ellis asked about it again — the third ask.**
  Rowan's instruction, verbatim:

  > "He asked about the invoice again. Tell Bea to pay it Monday and stop making
  > me the reason a man has to ask three times."

  **The decision to pay is made. The sending is not Hobbs's** — authority rows 5,
  6 and 12: Hobbs does not spend, does not instruct a disbursement, and holds no
  channel to Bea. The line to Bea is drafted and sits on `hobbs-bg9`, P0, for
  Rowan to send. **The second half of that instruction is a correction and is
  logged in `Efforts/feedback.md`, 2026-09-12:** this invoice has been recorded in
  three vault files since 5 September and has appeared in **zero of the five
  archived briefs.** It goes in the next one.
- **First race of the season: Saturday 3 October.** The entry deadline is still
  unknown (`hobbs-935`). A 19 September splash leaves fourteen days to it.

~~**The two live items were the same conversation, and only one of them moved.**
Rowan approved $3,400 of new work at a yard he is **52 days late paying**. The
invoice is untouched and still open as `hobbs-bg9`. Stated as a fact, not a
recommendation — both decisions are his and he has made one.~~

**Both moved on 12 September.** The rate was approved to Ellis's face and the
invoice was disposed of in the same sentence — pay Monday, full stop. What remains
is not a decision but a send: `hobbs-bg9`, Rowan's to press, drafted here.
**The paragraph above is struck rather than deleted because the hedge in it —
*"stated as a fact, not a recommendation"* — is the exact thing that kept this
invoice out of seven briefs.** Kept visible on purpose.

**Calendar note, logistics only:** 19 September is a Saturday inside Maya's field
block (7–25 September); she is back most Fridays. It is also the weekend Rowan
asked to be asked again about the Norton — *"ask me again in two weeks"* — which
is `hobbs-1dk`, now noted as landing on a splash day.

**The splash acquired a second dependent on 2026-09-11, and that dependency is
now cleared at the top.** The 19th is confirmed as of 12 September; the anniversary
weekend of 26-27 September no longer sits behind an unmade phone call.
<!-- src: Rowan, Friday morning 2026-09-11 -->
Rowan is marking the twelfth anniversary on the weekend of **26-27 September** —
*"the boat's back in the water on the 19th, so: the boat, two nights, somewhere
north."* **The 19 September splash is now the gating item for that weekend, and
the splash is itself gated on a phone call to [[Ellis Wright]] that was decided on
7 September and has not been made** (`hobbs-8wl`, P0, fifth day) — **superseded
12 September: the call was made, the splash is confirmed, `hobbs-8wl` closed.**
The 52-day yard bill sits behind the same yard (`hobbs-bg9`). Stated as facts, not as a
recommendation; both calls are Rowan's. Booking list due Sunday 13 Sep,
`hobbs-0si`. **She does not know about the weekend and is not to know** — nothing
about it reaches the shared calendar or Maya.

Rowan cannot wind a winch with his right arm, so he cannot single-hand her, and
he has stopped offering. See `health`.

## The 26-27 September passage — north is Tomales
<!-- src: Rowan, Thursday morning 2026-09-17 -->

> "Ophelia splashes Saturday the 19th. So: the weekend of the 26th and 27th, two
> nights on the boat, up to Tomales."

**Two nights, Sat 26 – Sun 27 September, Alameda to Tomales and back.**
`hobbs-2g6` — the gate under the whole weekend, P1 and open since 5 September —
closed on that sentence. Full record and the surprise constraint in
[[maya]]; this section holds only what is about the boat.

| | | |
|---|---|---|
| `hobbs-1ox` | **The mooring at the far end**, nights of the 26th and 27th | **Rowan calls.** Hobbs does not — authority row 11, row 12, and no calendar curator (ADR-20) |
| `hobbs-45i` | Provisioning, fuel, pumpout, before the 26th | P2 |
| `hobbs-935` | The 3 October race entry deadline | Back on the 27th. **Six days**, and the deadline is still unknown |

**The gap between the splash and the passage, stated as a fact.** She goes back
in the water **Saturday 19 September** after the refit, including the rudder
bearing that arrived on 9 September. **The next use recorded anywhere in this
vault is two nights to Tomales on the 26th.** Nothing here records a sail between
those two dates. Seven days; not a recommendation, and Hobbs holds no view on
whether one is wanted.

**Not held and not invented:** which mooring *"the far end"* is, who holds it,
whether it takes a booking, the number, the lead time, the passage, the tides,
and this boat's draft. No marina data and no curator (rule 17, ADR-20).

**The yard is holding the boat this weekend leaves on.** `hobbs-bg9` — the line
to Bea, decided by Rowan on 12 September to pay **Monday 14 September**. Monday
was three days ago. It is still open and still P0.

## People
[[Ellis Wright]] — foreman at the boatyard. **Calls, never emails.** Every fact
about this boat arrives as a voicemail listened to in the car. He chases three
times a day, which is why he is deliberately **not** on the Quiet list.
[[Bea Nkemelu]] — the yard invoice.
[[Maya]] — sailed before Rowan did. "We keep saying we'll do more of it and don't."

## Open threads
- ~~Rudder bearing in customs~~ — cleared; at the yard **Wed 9 September**.
- ~~The $3,400 rudder rate~~ — **approved to Ellis by phone, Sat 12 Sep. Splash
  confirmed for Sat 19 Sep.** `hobbs-8wl` closed.
- Race entry deadline — unknown (`hobbs-935`). A 19 Sep splash leaves 14 days.
- **The yard bill — the one open item on this venture.** 52 days at Ellis's last
  count (5 Sep), 59 by count today. Bea raised it twice, Ellis three times.
  **Decided 12 Sep: pay Monday 14 September.** Not sent — `hobbs-bg9`, P0, draft
  prepared, Rowan sends (rows 5, 6, 12).

## Next bet (12 months)
Splashed, sailing, and sailed with Maya more than zero times.