It may not have been quite so painful, but those involved were pretty tense. Nearly 3,000 people stood at attention, listening for the telltale creaks and whines that meant a nearly 40,000-pound wooden schooner vessel had reached its tipping point.
Sunday was the official launching of Isabella, a privately commissioned boat built in the style of an early 1800s fishing vessel.
It was built in the Burnham Shipyard, and sent to sea using the traditional side launch method. A wooden skeleton, called a bilge, was built around the vessel. The craft was slowly — very slowly — jacked toward greased planks that lined one side of the bilge.