We spent eight hours on the boat yesterday with our handover Captain Charlie and Project Manager Luke, learning and going through dockside trials of mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, and plumbing systems. The Oyster team has been fabulous and patient with us as we asked dumb questions and struggle to absorb their many years of knowledge and wisdom. Every floorboard was lifted, every overhead panels was removed, and the 17 or 18 through hull fittings were each examined and manipulated. It was a day of many sentences that began with: “if this goes wrong, you have to do that….” Yikes. The details are impressive. Every single wire on the boat has a number on it that corresponds to a section of the boat’s manual. All pipes and conduits are also labeled. Even more impressive was my brother’s ability to remember what was ordered a year and a half ago, and how that might differ from what has been delivered. The punch list will be addressed over the next few days. These folks have other boats to deliver and are eager to make sure ours is finished.
Today, we were joined by two representatives from North Sails and went out sailing. It was fun! The winds were light, and the forecasted rain held off. We have seven sails on board and we raised, set and lowered each one. There is a main, yankee, staysail, storm jib, gennaker, and two tradewind sails that are flown together. The tradewinds and the geneker are white and are deocrated with the Welcome logo. These are the sails that will be the most used on the Oyster World Rally because it is primarily a downwind route. The storm jib is orange and its use is apparent by its name. The remaining three are grey, and are 3Di offshore sails that are manufactured through a molding process. Very high tech. These will be used when we are close hauled or at a moderate reach. Each sail has a halyard for raising it, and one or two jib sheets for control. Each working line has a specific color that corrolates to the sail it controls. Jay oversaw the selection of color, type and length of all the lines from a private vendor, and the effort was worth it based on the results.
Tomorrow will be spent with IT guru, Gavin, doing a thorough handover of the IT and AV systems. We will then run through all the manuals and paperwork with Luke, and cover anything onboard that we haven’t managed to do up to that point, such as operating the transom and davits.
Tuesday we will go through inventory most of the day to be sure that everything we ordered for the boat is present. The rest of the week will be spent working on the punchlist, provisioning the boat, and developing a long list of what we still need to do and learn.
We can’t stay on the boat until we leave Ipswich. The target date for that is October 7, when we heard to Guernsey for the formal change of ownership, and then ten to fourteen days offshore headed to the Canary Islands. We hope the tracking map will be fully operational – yet another thing to learn. Wish us luck.
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