Stretched so tight you could play a song on them

If boats could squint, Valkyrie would have done her fair share when rolled outside for the first time.  With ample light and space to move around some measurements were taken for the eventual adjustments the trailer would receive, but for now things looked good.

Sitting Pretty

Once Valkyrie was on the trailer and sitting outside… we had a thought…

“Why not launch her?”

Down to the wharf we went, the fine dust that had not been vacuumed off slowly swirling around Valkyrie, caught in the air coursing over her on her first trip to the water.  As the trailer backed into the frigid waters of Maine, Valkyrie silently lifted off the trailer beds – a gentle tug on the bow line and she swung around, gliding to the dock with little ripples around her hull.

Waiting...

Now that Valkyrie was in the water we wanted to see just what she would do.  Since we didn’t have an outboard at the time we opted to use some paddles – with Ed on the starboard side and Travis on port, Valkyrie made a fair clip of speed in the shallow waters near shore.  Once safely back at the dock various weights (people) were positioned within Valkyrie to see just how close the reference line, that had been put on for the bottom paint, was to the actual way that she sat in the water.  With an outboard, two fuel tanks, the center console in place, the battery and all the other stuff that always finds a place on a boat the waterline should be correct, giving Valkyrie a few inches clearance  so she won’t grass up while on her mooring during the fishing season.

Once back to Shop2, Valkyrie was washed down and the blue tape came out, marking the boot stripe to be painted on before she was rolled back inside, her time outside well spent.  She will have to wait a little longer before coming out to play again.

Confinement

Just Call Me "Chip"

Finishing up some loose ends around the interior, the seat cleats were planed down even and level with each other, the interior edges were gone over again – taking any waiver out of the surface and the flotation skirts were curled over on the bottom, sealing the underside from moisture and more importantly – shags.

The Bane of Mooring #3

Since Valkyrie will be having bait, mud and other unmentionables (thanks to the Shags that always hang around mooring #3) interacting with the interior, it is very important to have it nice and smooth.

Ground Down Diet - The New Exciting Weight Loss Program For Boats

With all of the seams and ridges from glassing on the valences and pads now smooth we could turn our attention to the trim idea that came to mind.  Half-round trim looked very nice once in place and the curve of the sheer, while generous, was not too much for the material to handle and it laid along the surface nicely.

Finishing Touches

At this point Valkyrie’s flotation was very obvious we thought, and those lines just weren’t completely conducive to the over all “look” that we wanted.  The solution of course was to skirt material around the flotation and fiberglass that into place, adding the curves that everyone love.  There are always materials that just do not want to cooperate, the material we chose to skirt the flotation was one of those, but eventually it stopped resisting and settled into place, quickly we tabbed it in place before it changed its mind.  During this time the interior edges were also sealed and ‘glassed over.

Flotation Skirt