Launch, Re-launch, Victory!

Originally we were under the impression that high tide was at three PM -- so we went down Friday night, with an appointment to have the boat launched at "high tide". We were scrambling along trying to get a few last minute jobs done that really required electricity when Bill, who had agreed to launch us told us he would put us up in the hoist at noon so we could paint the bottom of our keel. This sounded like a good plan, but as always we were running a little behind and really needed to finish packing our gear onto the boat and unloading our tools onto the ground when around 11:30 we were faced with the business end of the boat lift. I hastily threw our pile of food, sails, clothes etc from right next to the boat to a spot out of the way, and Matt handed down the drill and extension cord. With help from a few other members we hung bumpers on the starboard side and prepared to be moved. Bill, handling the lift was a pro, only took once and he had it lined up perfectly. She was in the slings and in the air in about ten minutes.

I dabbed paint on the rusty keel bottom while Matt finished attaching the handrails up top. The jack stands were all heavily set in old dry mud and grown around with vines. After about forty minutes Bill announced that the water was there and we were ready to go. Again, we shifted all the gear we could and we were off.

Another skipper helped Matt knock the stands down, as they had to be wrenched free of the vines.

Just one hitch -- since she'd been put there 7 years ago the trees got a little taller.

A few quick turns had her free though.

Everything looked hunky dory here, so we got some help from Dale, another kind member who took pity on us and helped us start the motor and power over to the loading dock. We were tied there for about ten minutes when Matt announced that our solitary through hull was leaking. He went to find some caulk to try a quick fix when a 35 foot yacht and another member in an inflatable dinghy cruised up to the dock with very little control and collided with the outside of the Dalloway, crushing both our boat and the other boat's owner between the floating dock and the larger boat. Thanks to the quick responses of two other members, to whom I am exceedingly grateful, disaster was narrowly averted as they pushed the larger boat back to release the trapped owner and back the yacht off of our bow.

After a subsequent conference with several senior members, it was determined that the original through hull needed to be removed and re-bedded with an improvised backing plate. This called for another ride in the slings, which ended with us climbing back aboard with the lift parked behind the clubhouse. In a record time of less than forty five minutes Matt fabricated a backing plate, removed the old through hull, rebedded it with 4200 and reattached it. In the hustle, I lost our extendable ladder and 50 foot extension cord, but we got the boat back into the water, and floating nicely. Again, with help from other members, we took a brief but awesome tour of the area, and then settled at our mooring for the evening.