Launch Day

On the 9 July 2011 Launch of the Schooner Ardelle, Made in Essex Massachusetts by Harold Burnham and a Circle of Devoted Assistants.

Soon a new schooner built using methods consistent with the old ways is to be launched from the last of the shipyards.

For many months, deep in the night when the birds have gone silent and the hold of the present loosens phantom shipwrights have gathered in the vapor that trails across the water to deliberate about the work.

Because a side-launch is particular to this place and repeats so many that came before it, the echo of the hull's first contact with the water will pull the past through the present and the present into the past. When the hole in time opens all the inhabitants of all past and possible versions of the town will see each other. Like every launch, this will be a celebration. People from all past and possible version of town will converge. They will embrace and share drinks and tell each other important things.

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Author's Note

I haven't made a piece for this sort of occasion before & am not sure quite how one does them.

anyway, as you probably surmise from the title (which i didn't think would fit into the box) harold burnham, a local shipbuilder, and his circle of associates are launching the ardelle in a few hours. it's a pretty great thing:

http://boatbuildingwithburnham.blogspot.com/

folk at the essex shipbuilding museum are pretty excited about it too:

http://www.essexshipbuildingmuseum.org/

i think i'll try to give a copy to someone tied to the builder. but it'll likely get lost in the collective celebration. so i'm putting it here too.