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With the boat completed and ready to be launched, all that remained was a long and frustrating wait for a trailer to be completed.  And long and frustrating it was.  But all things (good and bad) come to an end and so finally dawned the day when then trailer was to arrive and the boat moved from its building frame.

The crane (at rear) has done its job. Boat on trailer.

As with the boat turnover, there are many ways to accomplish to shifting of a 1 tonne boat onto its trailer.  The roof beams of my shed, somewhat trusted when then hull weighed 400 – 500 kg, were never going to cope with 1 tonne and so a crane became the preferred method.  Which, in retrospect, was an intelligent move as the crane permits a significant degree of hull movement to line it up over the trailer (rather than the reverse).  Although there were some distinctly nerve-wracking moments – the partial collapse of the building frame when moved being one of them – in the end, the boat swung happily in the air before being set down on its trailer.

Which meant that it was time to launch and see whether it a) floated; b) did not take on water; and c) worked in general.

So down to the river we went.  And, lo and behold, it slid off the trailer as happily as could be and sat the correct way up waiting to be used.

Now what do we do? The author (in blue) contemplates next steps.

In this particular case (well, perhaps all cases), pictures paint a thousand words.  The video of the launch day provides a better insight into what happened than endless blogging.  So check out  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-nPycZMeOY.

So that is that.  A few kindly souls have asked what the next project will be.  For me, at least, the process of finding the next way to spend money and time is a completely non-deterministic one and so impossible to predict.  So, for the moment, the job at hand is to enjoy the fruits of two years labor.  To my mind, there is a necessary step in the process of closure where the boat stops being a building project – with all the tears and joy involved – and starts being a boat to enjoy and have fun in (with no tears one hopes).  And so that is the only goal for now.

Parked and bristling with GoPro cameras recording the event

Editors Note: See Andrew’s photo gallery in the Glen-L Customer Photo area here.