Launch day!

Well it finally came!  After many last-minute details and painting and quite a bit of mumbling to myself about this and that, BELLE had her first taste of salt water today.  It was a very exciting day, I'm going to just post a few pictures for now and report later in more detail.  But suffice it to say that the it was great to launch the boat right in the creek in front of D. N. Hylan & Assoc., mere feet from the shop where BELLE was built as I've detailed in this blog. So many many thanks to Doug, Ellery, Matt, Nick, and Rick!  (I'm sorry I only have photos of me and Nick.)  Hylan also launched a boat just before BELLE, but that's a whole other story...

So here goes with the pictures.  All photos were taken by Ellery Brown, many thanks for doing the honors Ellery!  That said, the only photo of food in this bunch was taken by yours truly.  Typical.

First things first:  a bottle of beer and a wonderful Lemon Cake from Sarahndipity Pies!

Then to the launch. Nick on tractor, me fussing with something or other.  This creek is dry at low tide, so with the tide coming in nicely it's time to get her in the water.  

In she goes! 

Now to take her for a sail.  Let's see, I started building last March and the design two Christmases ago.  A lot of work, time to play!

Now that we're out of the creek and in the Benjamin River (right off Maine's Eggemoggin Reach), time to raise the mainsail...

...then the jib....

...and off we go!  It was a brisk day, I'm at the helm (blue wool hat) and Nick is tending the jib sheet (red wool hat).  Feeling great so far.  The mainsail seems to be setting nicely.  

A nice breeze let us put her through her paces a bit. Here I've relinquished the helm for a minute or two.

Back on her trailer, in front of the shop, awaiting further adventures.

It's been quite a day, I think that's all I have energy for right now.  In a few days I'll have more thoughts and photos on the launch and various small projects to keep me busy until the next sail.  Maybe it'll be a bit warmer next time.

So long for now.

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is launch day!  This morning I trailered BELLE over to the boatyard, put the mast up (no problem for one person to do), and got her ready to launch on tomorrow's afternoon tide.  High tide  is about 6:30PM, but there should be enough water in the inlet where the launch will take place by 4:30PM or so.  Here are a couple of final "dry land" photos of the boat:

A coat of bottom paint ("Shark White") and a bunch of rigging details taken care of for launch.

With the mainsail laced to the mast (no mast hoops), I decided to leave the end of the boom down for the night and securely bundle the sail to the spars.  It's quite blustery today, with more wind expected overnight, so I thought it would be safer to do it that way.  Plus I don't have the topping lift in place yet...soon! 

I realize I've been remiss in reporting on the various final details of rigging, bottom paint, etc. I'll make up for it,  there will be photos, etc., of various aspects of the final work on the boat to come soon.  Stay tuned!

In the meantime, though, I'm hoping to have some nice photos of launch day here within a few days.  Wish me luck!

Sails, trailer, and another move

I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post.  With a new job, I haven't got a lot done of BELLE recently, but there's been at least some progress:

I picked up a Load Rite trailer from the nice folks at B&D Marine this morning and loaded up BELLE for the short trip back to the house.  For the last month she's been luxuriating in a fine storage shed at the boatyard, but from now on she'll have to sleep rough under a tarp in my back yard.  I was pleased to note that the ol' Subaru (197K miles, going strong, knock on metal) seemed to have no problem towing BELLE, even up a fairly steep hill between the shop and the house.  The 2x4 sticking out of the window is destined to be the ridge pole of the boat cover. 

Here she is parked back at the ranch.  Home at last!  I'll be able to raise the mast and do final rigging right here in the yard.  The weather is supposed to be very nice the next few days, I'm going to try to take advantage and get a lot done. At some point I'll roll the boat into the driveway, lay down a tarp, and do the bottom paint too.

The other thing I got done is driving down to Bohndell Sails in Rockport to pick up the sails.  Here's a photo of the sailbag in the boat, just for fun.   I'll be rigging them on the spars shortly.  Last weekend I spread them out on the lawn to take a quick look, and I must say they look very good. This is the second set of sails I've ordered from them, about 10 years ago I also ordered sails for my Joel White  Pooduck Skiff from Bohndell.  They seemed to hold up well and sail well, so I went back to them for BELLE.  (They don't seem to have a web site, but their address/phone/email is available through Google.)

The warm weather we've been having this year (the "new normal"?) has got me thinking about getting out on the water about a month sooner than usual.    Just a bit more work, and I'll be there.  I'll post photos of the rigging process, so stay tuned.

Bye for now.