Finally, the day of launching. Louis Charland continues his narration of how he built Wiskun in his backyard over 30 years ago.

The day before (24 hours) the launching was the worst day of my life and has yet to be beaten. Everything seemed to go wrong and I guess the tension had been building for quite some time

The hauling crew came early to load Wiskun onto the trailer and allow me to epoxy seal the bottom of the keel. The plan was to take the boat to the street that day and on the next day take it to the launching ramp.  Before I sealed the keel I ran off on an errand and while I was gone a helpful friend thought it was ready for bottom paint and slapped it on. I was so stressed I almost lost my mind when I came back and saw what happened. I bought gallons of paint thinner and tried to wash it off along with scraping but of course I was only able to remove the surface paint and because it was raw concrete it had soaked in. I decided I would need a sand plaster. Getting one forthwith was a challenge. 

Before the end of the day all the paint was removed, sandblasted, and the epoxy sealer was put on but not before I had a car accident in my rushing around that day. Eventually everything was ready and they started moving Wiskun down the driveway. Well, it turned out the house was in the way, which was a concern earlier. We partially let the air out of the tires on the opposite side of the trailer to lean the boat over a bit. I was convinced seven years work was about to roll the trailer over into my neighbour's yard. Carpeting was placed between the boat and house and it finally slipped by.

  

The anti-climax put me into shock and I started hyperventilating. I tried to hide but a friend saw what was going on and assisted with CPR. At this point my neighbour told me the trailer was about to roll over an old septic tank buried under the driveway. Fortunately I had a couple of rough 2x10 oak planks I was saving for something and we placed them under the wheels (the deflated side) and the trailer rolled across. The weight bowed the planks and they split but it was enough to save the trailer wheels from disappearing into the ground. The driveway was destroyed in the process of getting to the street.

Of course the anxiety had been building for quite some time which compounded my over-reaction to everything although each event was a minnie crises in itself. The next day, launching, was the best day of my life and has yet to be beaten.