She's Launched!

Around 7pm on Good Friday in the presence of a few salty friends, George christened his handmade wooden dinghy and took her for a row, in the relatively chilly waters of Avalon Harbor.

Four fabulous fellows wheeled the boat from its tiny building grounds towards the waterfront, with an entourage, including chase cart, following at parade pace.



The small party headed for South Beach along the quiet residential street of Clarissa, which seemed to be the perfect route; however, the street ended abruptly, 3 feet above the beach. The dinghy was carefully lowered into the surging swell, George quoted the designer Sam Devlin's traditional launching speech,we all quaffed some Martinelli's and the captain set her afloat.

The milk-white boat with shiny African mahogany trim rows beautifully. She is a little tippy but that may she will handle well in waves. (Next trial.)

What to name her? Our mother ship, Nereid, has a name with dual meaning. First, it's a Greek word for a sea nymph and daughter of Neptune. Second, in our solar system it is the name of a moon orbiting the planet Neptune, and the moon with the most erratic orbit (which suits our sailing style). Following that tradition, we looked up the moons of Neptune on Wikipedia and found: "Galatea (Greek: Γαλάτεια; "she who is milk-white")[1] is a name popularly applied to the statue carved by Pygmalion of Cyprus in Greek mythology. An allusion to Galatea in modern English has become a metaphor for a statue that has come to life." Galatea it is!

Special thanks to: Bob Cranton (whose generous nature provided space), Roger (who received every shipment necessary) and Sam Devlin, who pioneered the stitch-and-glue building methods and designed the boat that George built.