Launch Day Part 2

Here's a few more photos from Launch Day, many thanks to Doug Hylan for this batch.  (I also got photos from Ellery Brown which were shown in my previous post.)

Sarah does the honors, pouring Champagne on the bow to mark the occasion.

A bow-on view of BELLE under sail.  The boat in the background is a Hylan Point Comfort Skiff 18, looking very nice.

The wind picked up as the day went on, here she is moving along at a pretty good clip.   Of course,  I'll be tweaking the rig over the next few weeks, but I must say I was very happy with how BELLE sailed right out of the box.

It started getting colder--the wool hats aren't just for show--but Doug caught this nice silhouette before Nick (red hat) and myself  called it a day.

If you're on Facebook, you can see my page for a few more pictures. 

The end of a perfect day?  Just about. There are a few details to work on, but overall the boat has worked terrifically so far.  I'll report back on the tweaks as we go along.  Plus there's lots to learn about her performance in higher winds etc.  

Fair warning, there will be longer gaps between blog posts than in the past:  I may well be out sailing during times I should be blogging!  That said, I will be doing a post in the near future covering rigging issues.

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!

Outside for some rigging

Just a quick update this time to show BELLE outside for rigging/hardware work!  It was a warm winter day, so I rolled her out of the shop and put in the mast.  No problem for one person.  Then I worked out the final location of fairleads and such using odds and ends of rope.

Here is BELLE rolled out of the shop, ready for rig/hardware setup.  

Mast in place, I'm using pieces of old rope to get final measurements for various pieces of standing/running rigging.  Only two coats of varnish on the spars at this point, I'll get a couple of more on before launch day.

Here I'm locating a deck fairlead.  My plan is to use a modern low-stretch rope (Spectra) for the side shrouds instead of wire.  These will run through blocks to small cleats on the side decks.  The lozenge-chaped piece of oak in the photo will hold one of the staysail camcleats to the coamings (see next photo).

Back in the shop, here's one of the staysail camcleats installed on the coamings.  The coamings need a couple of more coats of varnish, then I'll get another coat of paint on the decks and rubrails.  

The sails are now on order from Bohndell Sails in Rockport Maine (sorry, they don't have a web site or I would link to it), and I ordered a bunch of rope from RW Rope.  The sails should take 4-6 weeks, so I've got a few more weeks to varnish and leather the spars and do various detail work.  With the sails in hand, I'll then be able to do the final setup of the rig...and take her for a sail!  Weather permitting, I'm shooting for the end of March.  In the meantime, there's more paint/varnish, of course...