stresses of splash day

So you've just worked in the yard for the past month and a half and it is finally time to splash your boat. You feel excited, jittery and you're planning for the worst, hoping for the best. It's a day that holds a lot of possibility in the life of boat ownership.

Splash days have never been that stressful until the day we splashed our 37 foot Searunner Trimaran and nearly sank her at the dock. I hadn't realized that the transducer wasn't in resulting in a 2 inch diameter hole in the bottom of the boat. It filled up fast, man! We had floating floor boards in 10 minutes, and since it took us several minutes to find the "leak," we were thigh high in water by the time we realized what it was.

Since that day, I look at splash days with new eyes. Sure they are filled with excitement, but they are also filled with a bit of dread. Like, "what if everything we just worked for is under water and ruined in the span of minutes?" It went even deeper than that for me with the trimaran. That simple act of "sinking" the boat shot my confidence all to hell. Of course it wasn't all the boat's fault, but the sea chest that failed and a few other things that didn't go right, made me loose confidence in the boat which, I'm sorry to say, affected my whole trip on the trimaran.

Cut to splash day for Flapjack Octopus (yes, that's what we named our new boat), we asked to be kept in the slings overnight to check the centerboard, we asked to have them hover us in the water just above all our seacocks (water entry points in the hull), and we were onboard within seconds to check for water. We took those extra precautions which should have been our routine in the past and it paid off. She didn't sink!! No water intrusion, no failed seacocks, and two happy sailors. That night at the dock we talked a little quieter, listening for water trickles and drips, but they never came. Finally we are in the water and with the new found confidence one can only get from a floating home and not a sinking one, we are planning our next jumps with enthusiasm and excitement!