As part of the delivery of our boat, Oceanvolt sent a technician to certify the installation of all components related to the electric propulsion system, and test the engine performance.

Finally, the big day had arrived. Since the launching in the harbor of Les Sables-d’Olonne can best be done at high tide, and furthermore the almost 10 km trip with the ship on the trailer from the shipyard to the harbor should best be done with little traffic, we started at 6 o’clock in the morning in complete darkness and autumnal rain. The tractor pulling the trailer with our Nikola passed various traffic circles with flying colors and finally let her glide gently backwards into the water. First test - it floats!

The technical expansion and interior work is progressing with great strides - the 11 kW generator is installed in the technical room (the large white box in the picture) and many other elements of the electrical system, such as the inverter (blue box at the back), which converts 48 V direct current into 230 V alternating current (for cooking, among other things), and the isolation transformer (white box at the back left), which makes it possible to obtain shore power in port without connecting the ship to shore with a conductor - otherwise galvanic corrosion would attack the aluminum hull.

For the first time since the beginning of the construction phase, we managed to visit the shipyard in France and see the progress of construction on our ship for ourselves. It was quite impressive to not only visit the shipyard and walk past any random ships, as we did a few times during the planning phase, but to actually stand in front of and inside the ship that will soon be our home.

Painting is finally finished, and the boat is now much closer to its final look of white, gray and black. One pass of polishing is done on the bare aluminium.

The boat has been moved to the paint shop, where a primer and anti-fouling will be applied to the hull below the waterline. The hull above the waterline is not painted, and remains bare aluminium on which a protective layer of corrosion forms over time. The deck, cabin roof and hard dodger are painted white, in up to nine layers of paint (for robustness), so the painting process will take a while. We have to be patient.

The deck is now firmly welded to the hull and the cabin roof, the doghouse and the aft arch are in their final positions. The impression of how the cockpit will look later is starting to be pretty complete.

The deck, cabin roof, hard dodger and cockpit have now been welded together separately. The hull has been turned.

Metalwork has progressed further and the hull was unmolded this week, that means it was removed from the steel mold on which it was constructed initially.

All main plates of the hull are now in place, and work has started on some parts of the superstructure, like the characteristic stern arch which will later hold solar panels and dinghy davits.