She floats. She rows. She rocks and rolls. She's a boat.

Edith got wet today, and she seemed to love it. I launched with the hatches open to see where any leakage came from. There is a bit, mostly seeping through knots, so nothing to really get all worried about. She rows like a dream, at least on flat water. Really fast. We did a flip drill (we meaning Edith and me) and she is a bit reluctant to go over, but eager to come up. I didn't even have to begin to climb up onto her--just pull on a rope with my foot against her. Good to know! The hatches stayed nearly dry during the roll. Amazing.

I did a few oarstop tests, moving them up and down the oar, looking for an acceptable compromise between good, comfortable leverage and crossed grips. I think I'm settling on about four inches of cross-over, which will take a bit of getting used to. Luckily her first trip starts with 120 miles of flatwater.

About a dozen friends, observers and participants showed up for the picnic. Champagne, snacks, beer, hugs, and a whole lot of laughter. We should have more boat launching parties. Lots more.

Of course my camera battery went dead on arrival, but there were others. I'll post a few when they come my way. But I did get to try out my new waterproof movie camera, and Peter snapped a few stills with it as well. This would be Edith and me:

And this would be Dan and me, watching Edith:

And this would be a goofy action shot:

Long and short: very fun, cool, fast, kinda tippy boat. And way pretty. I need to spooge a few leaky knots, leather my oars, and build a couple sideboxes. And take a nap. First the nap.