Launching the yacht for the 2nd time

As you know if you are a regular reader of this blog, i had a traditional yacht (a.k.a. "work boat") built in the Southern Caribbean island of Carriacou. The history, tradition and process that goes into building one of these amazing yachts is something which adds incredible value to them and gives them spirit and an almost life like atmosphere once aboard. Anyway, we launched the yacht in Carriacou then had to get her rigged with a mast, boom and sails and made the 300+ mile run non stop to Antigua where we slapped a thin layer of paint on her and competed in The Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta. Since then we have been trying to finish her to the point where we could do day tours and private charters in Antigua under the name Sailing Antigua. For the past 8 weeks there has been non stop work done on her and we are about to launch her for the second time with an engine and with all the additional lead ballast installed. We had thousands of dollars of paint carefully applied after very careful prep work including sanding the entire interior. Getting 3500 of lead was a whole story alone and i will save that for another day. The engine is in and the rudder was modified and finally is getting fastened today after plenty of stainless steel fabrication. Will take photos later today. This is just some news of what we have been up to. After we launch we still need to do some interior wood work, but keeping her out of the water isn't good for the wood and once the rudder work is done we should be able to launch tomorrow. May go for a sail this weekend and get some nice sailing shots. Will keep you informed.