It's Here! Now What?

After much wrangling, Vitran, which is a delivery company, not the latest ED drug, finally stopped by the house right before its scheduled time and dropped off my kit. It was pure joy watching the guy (an ex-Marine, oorah!) carefully and expertly lower the ramp to get the double-pallet off the rig and onto the pavement.

This was an interesting sight on my small block.

I had to first shovel out some of the ice that still sat at the foot of my driveway, then helped with the handtruck as he maneuvered the roller dolly into place. I have a fairly steep ramp so this wasn't easy. We eventually got it into the garage where I promptly shut the door wondering what the heck did I just do? I picked up a small piece of board that fell out in transit, emblazoned with a sticker "Okoume Marine Plywood" and my heart rose again.

This is what $1,500 worth of plywood looks like.

Still, here's why I'm nervous:

• It's going to be a tight fit in the garage. I'd mentioned before how it'll be a struggle for space. With just the slightly-larger-than-4x8 pallets stacked end to end, it won't be much larger than the actual 7x16 boat. There will be no room to get around the boat easily. I'll have to work with the garage door open or climb over the top. I'm told, though, that most people work one side at a time on any given night, and thanks to the casters I have from Chris, I should be able to manage. It'll be even more impressive when PocketShip takes shape in such a small space.

• There's no turning back now. Even with the discounts, I've easily dropped some good coin on this so far between the wood, disposables, running lines, and tools I didn't already have. I won't be able to sell this back so it's like passing the halfway point on the trip to Mars: it's faster just to get there, no matter what's ahead.

Two plywoods = 16'. LOA is 14' 10".
Hopefully it's warm when I varnish the transom... or I find a leprechaun to help.

All of this passed through my head as the garage door was closing. But the build will begin tonight, as the manual says, with the centerboard.