The BIG REVEAL!

What a week! 30+ hours of work on the boat and trailer capped off by the BIG REVEAL! As some of you may know, I am a pastor and I wanted to let my church in on the big day.

I finished the week installing the rudder and tiller. I think they look right. I may have to shave the tiller slot a little bit to allow for a fuller range of motion, but that should be easy enough. 

Sunday was the big day. When I returned home from the a.m. service and lunch, I had to clean up the boat which was simply a matter of getting a few leaves out, vacuuming up some dirt and saw dust and wiping the inside down a little. I came up with the needed ratchet straps, two for the mast and two for the hull. I secured the bow eye to the trailer with one and the mast to the stands with two others. I wrapped the oars and mizzen mast in sheets and tied them to the thwart and aft stand. I loaded the daggerboard and boomkin into the SUV. Lastly, I applied the two sets of the name of the boat to the cove stripe and covered them with heavy white paper to be hidden until the set time. Then I had to jockey a boat and another trailer around. I moved the Hunter to the street, the utility trailer off to the side and hooked up the CIY.

By then it was time to go to church. My wife and I pulled out of the driveway and headed to church. Oops! I forgot to secure the hull to the trailer with the fourth ratchet strap! A half mile down the road I made a quick U-turn and went back home to take care of that. Once we got to church I set up the boat on the lawn behind the church ready for the big reveal. 

My wife and daughters decorated the fellowship hall very nicely in a nautical theme and set up for a "tailgate" style light supper of hotdogs and chili, chips, cookies and soda. You can see the boat in the background. 

All of the suggested boat names for the boat are on the pennants draped along the wall. 

Here I am ready to reveal the boat's name. We had let the church members offer their suggestions for boat names and we got some good ones: New Kidd on the Dock, Out to Pastor, Almost Heaven and more. We even got some funny ones like Breaking Wind - LOL! I did not guarantee that I was going to use one of their names, but, in the end, I did. 

And the name is........... (drum roll)

Perhaps you've heard of the "Jesus boat" which is the nickname that's been given to a boat excavated near the Sea of Galilee that dates to the time of Jesus, well, now there is the "Disciple Ship". I kinda like it. 

The evening went well and people liked the boat. I think it showed well. Here she is put to bed.

There are a few minor things that I need to finish on the boat and then there is the mainsail to build along with setting up the rigging. My goal is to have a launch by Thanksgiving! Let's get 'er done!