Bluetooth and the blue boat

Slipway bound.

June 30th was liftout day for Catweasel and saw her collected and taken to the slipway. This was an unusual thing to behold as it saw Tim and I being overtaken by the unoccupied yacht whilst in the dinghy. I think it's safe to say this won't be happening often. It was the first time she'd been photographed moving on the water and perhaps a little more dignity for the poor girl would have been nice. On the plus side all went according to schedule. The lift out process at Wicor seems to have been built on many years of experiencing owners saying "Yeah, she'll be ready on the day!" and I suspect they got bored of finding this wasn't the case. This meant we had to strip sails and anchor and blank the log impeller. No idea how that one's meant to work as the only thing I know about log impellers is that they are bellow the waterline. Anyway, only once all this prep is done will they take liftout requests seriously so there was some potential for Tim's schedule to slip but thankfully that didn't happen.

Stick that on your ear and talk into it!

Anyway, we got to see what has to be one of the most amazing Bluetooth devices ever in the form of an umpteen ton remote control motorized boat lift. Basically it was driven under Catweasel whilst she was on the slipway, appropriate buttons were pressed and then the magic happened. Within a couple of minutes she was out of the water and ready to be propped upright in a quiet corner of the yard. This was a slightly less technical arrangement and involved some scaffold-like contrivances, some belting great chunks of wood, a wedge or two and a mallet.
Barely was she at rest then Ian, the local shipwright, was aboard and making busy with the installation of the cockpit drain. Tim and I then set about upsetting the superstitious by taking her old name off and prepping the hull to receive her beautiful "Catweasel" stickers to bows and the left side of her transom and an "of Muasdale" for the right side. Actually there is no "of" part as Tim elected to go for the brand new concept of implicit stickering, which is to say he forgot to order it.