BIG Arrival

Christeen’s repairs have been humming along at a steady pace the past few weeks. A lot of prep work has been done to the hull, frames, planking, and exterior of the boat to get her ready for her re-launch on April 9. It is coming together nicely and the project has reached a point where there is not much else to do but wait for the new keel to arrive. The keel as many of you know is the main, and only reason, the Christeen was taken out of the water this fall and put in her temporary home over the winter at the Western Waterfront. 

The new keel has been MIA, our suppliers have fallen through, timbers sent to us have not passed spec and we were sweating the timing of when it would finally arrive. There were many promises of ‘it is going to be here Tuesday’ which turned into Friday, then the following Monday, then next week; which then turned into, ‘we’re not really sure when, but it’s coming sometime’.   Josh had found the replacement keel what seems like months ago now and we were all waiting for the snow storms to pass, the log to be cut, loaded onto the truck and shipped down to us in Oyster Bay. All these tasks seemed to have trouble coming together, specifically in that order, there were rumors of a truck driving down, but how could that be if the timber hadn’t been cut yet? Tall tales started to pop up and before we knew it the keel became a mystical being with wings and a mind of its own. We were all having a little bit of fun to lighten the mood of a potentially serious situation – having a boat that didn’t float.

Good news!

The keel arrived Wednesday, February 23 at approximately 1pm! Needless to say it is the most popular piece of wood in town. It is an excellent specimen, over-sized, clear, and relatively strait considering its size. The veils of mystery have finally been lifted and the project is going to start picking up some serious traction beginning today. Videos of the keel being cut to rough shape are soon to follow. Stay tuned!

Below are pictures of the new timber next to the original 1883 keel. As mentioned earlier, this isn't a tree you find in your backyard, we weren't joking about needing a big tree!