Powell Boats hit the water! AKA, a big post.

All right here we go...

The end of this project really began with me crawling into the front hatch of thing two to trim off the excess cotton that was pushed out when the corking was pounded into the seams. Because the seams had opened up so much there was a lot of spill out not only cotton but also splines. So into the hatch with a chisel and razor.

I was really supervised that i fit in the forward compartment, and aside from being a little hot was quite comfortable. I really don't think riding in here during the expedition would be fun, mostly really, really, claustrophobic.

After the inner trimming thoughts turned to the question... How are we going to ship theses boats to Arizona. More to the point, what are we going to ship them on. So we built them some serious shipping cradles. We won't need them for a month or so but they were easier to build before we flipped the boats back over.

With the boats up and getting ready to go we got the last little details put together.

Next out of retirement came the trailer i hauled Florence from Tennessee with to pull the boats to the beach.

We placed the boats on the beach and then it became a waiting game, oh tide when will you rise?

It was fairly uneventful, as you can see Florence is hanging out in the background to help her older/younger sisters into the water.

 Turns out that Flo got to really help buy tying the stern lines to the pier. the tide was really pushing them around.

With them secure the third expedition member was helped into the water.

Some pleasantrys were exchanged then the boats were off their ties and taken to the dock

 Ok, here is a bunch of pics of boats floating around....

 Finally her's a short film clip.

The Powell boats have been one of the most fun projects i have ever worked on, i cant wait to see how they do on the river!

In the meantime.... It may be a while until my next post. Going to be moving into town. Have a great couple of weeks everyone!