made by Chrissy, one of Jane’s friends from the art
gallery.
Eventually all was ready for whenever Archie was
available with his trailer.
the launching
Rosie Lee had been jacked up on blocks so it was
easy to roll her onto the trailer; a flat 18 footer.
Then came the 50km drive to Tinaburra boat ramp
and the meeting of boat with water.
Around 2pm on June 9, 2017 Rosie Lee was
launched.
All went smoothly; the reverse of the loading; back
into the water, roll the boat off, then extract the sledge
and gather up the floating rollers!
Rosie not only floated but just below the painted
waterline – perfect; a nice amount of red between the
water and her blue sides.
Next was the moment I had been waiting for;
mounting and using the motors – how would they
perform? Why did I worry? They operated just as the
controls told them – five forward positions and three
reverse.
It was while doing a couple of runs by the ramp I
realised the boarding ramp was still down but not a
splash had entered even when I crossed the wash of
ski boats.
the open boat day
As the timing of the launch had been uncertain I held
an ‘Open Boat’ day on June 26 for all those people
who had followed the Rosie Lee saga. Most of those
who had been at the ‘Progress Party’ back in 2015
were there.
Moving at last.