Best Wishes from The RELIANCE Project

The year has gone quickly and it is hard to believe we’ve been at this for 15 months! I think most of us (all volunteers) can’t believe how much progress has been made! Last year at this time we were working on the boom and waiting for the hull to show up. Now we can really see how majestic and beautiful our RELIANCE will be!

Saturday was our last work session of the year. Thursday before, we drilled holes in the fiberglass base, put some wing nuts the bolts for extra holding power, filled the holes with epoxy glue and set everything in place to cure. On Saturday, Keith Bradley made some final adjustments and our stub mast sits as the mast should!

We also finished fairing the main chain plates and so have all chain plates in place; even with a token shackle and turnbuckle attached! Other volunteers finished filing and buffing all the beautiful fittings Mike Mirman has made for us over the year -so they have a miniature, true-to-scale jewelry finish.

So, as we take our shore leave for Christmas and New Years holidays, we’ll leave you with pictures of the mast step and Reliance as she waits for 2014 work to begin. Best wishes to everyone for happy holidays and a great RELIANCE New Year.