THE LAUNCH
Happy New Year! I’ve finally managed to squeeze in half an hour to update the blog after a Christmas mainly consisting of a poorly family (luckily the bugs stayed away whilst we enjoyed a New Year trip to Disneyland Paris!).
As you can see the boat arrived safely from Colecraft on the Saturday morning at the Clock Warehouse Pub, Shardlow. Unfortunately we had a few minor hiccups, firstly the crane driver had been given the wrong time and arrived a little later than planned. However this gave myself and the driver from AB Tuckeys chance to try to track down the owner of a 4×4 who had parked right at the point where the crane needed to be to avoid an awkwardly placed telephone line! We soon realised that this was probably owned by someone that had taken a taxi home from the Clock Warehouse’s Party Night and was probably at that moment nursing a hangover…. just my luck!
Although once the crane driver arrived he soon calculated that he’d have enough room to park on the far side of the telephone wire, lift the boat up and over both the line and car, and then still have enough crane height to reach down and place the boat in the water. However this meant dragging the rope over the phone line – you can just make this out in the photo. The crane driver did a fantastic job of gently pulling both bow and stern ropes over without a ‘hitch’! I half expected a ‘ping’ and a bill for a phone line re-connection but thankfully all went well and the boat was lowered in gracefully.
Once the boat was in the water she listed quite severely port side. The additional ballast port side had been installed to allow for the final weight of the fittings on the starboard fitout. But she wasn’t stable enough to cruise on the river down to Trentlock so we made a quick trip to a local Wickes to purchase some temporary ballast.
We arrived safely at Trent Lock late Saturday afternoon. Over the Christmas break I’ve managed to get started on the fitout by installing all the downlighters and switches, with lights functioning work can now progress into the evenings if necessary! More to follow shortly.
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WOW! What a brilliant blog.
Its so exciting watching every stage as its built – so much so I can’t resist booking a holiday on the boat this year!
The quality of all the works is stunning, and some really nice details in the design, I particularly like the idea of the sweeping staircase.
I can’t wait to see the final stages as its fitted out, and roll on June when we can have our holiday on it!!
Keep utp the good work Justin…
Regards, Tom.