Getting Ready for Launch on October 2

 

The rising sun at our Waterway Guide cottage

Wecome back everyone! We've been down at Deltaville for the last two days getting Fleetwing ready for launch. Most of the work has been done by Stingray Point Boat Works. When we arrived Tuesday afternoon, the keel was not finished, the boat was not polished, the teak had not been grouted. We envisioned launching Fleetwng with a less than stellar finish. On Wednesday morning, people appeared out of the woodwork. All of a sudden, we had five people working on getting Fleetwing ready for the fall season. 

I like the shine they got on the bow!

I had intended polishing the sides myself but couldn't make it down during the summer, partially due to the virus so I had scheduled Stingray to do that job. The keel had never been touched since I first bought the boat in 2004 so it was overdue for a redo with a sandblasting for the rust on the iron keel and a new barrier coat. 

The travellift was about three times bigger than Fleetwing needed

The last step was raising the boat in slings so the bottom of the keel could be sandblasted and painted. The yard hand got 1/3 of the way through when the sandblaster quit. He did the rest by hand and he was still going at it when we left the yard at 5:00 pm. We are due to launch on Friday at 9:00 am. We then will move over to Dozier's for a few days to get Fleetwing ready for the trip south. It will be good to be back on the water. 

The misbehaving sandblaster - it gave out after 1/3 of the way through the job