Earlier in the week, we were able to lower the first BaanLoiNaam pontoon into the pond and float it.

It was a bit of a process, but worked out pretty well.

First, we had to make sure that we will be able to mount the pontoon onto the frame after it is all in the water, so we needed to drill the holes in the mounting plates on the pontoons. But we want all pontoons to be interchangeable, so we welded matching mounting plates onto the pontoon jig (which is normally used to lay out the bottom of the pontoon).

If you look carefully, you can see the + marked into the top for drilling.

With the holes drilled, the pontoon is ready for lowering into the pond. So we laid down the rails.

The idea is that these “sleds” are attached to the underside of the pontoon to guide it down the rails to the water.

(We added some rope to the sleds so that when they fall off in the water, we can retrieve them easily.)

Then we slowly lowered the pontoon in, being careful that no one was downhill from the 850kg of steel doing a controlled slide down.

At this point, we lost control and it slid safely down. Still, next time I plan to have at least 4 people on each side (if possible) to control it down better.

With the pontoon in the water and disconnected from sled and ropes, one of the workers climbed on and poled it to a good parking spot.

Here it is tied up.

And finally, a view from across the pond with the older faery boat on the right and the pontoon on the left. But you might need to  zoom it up to see it.

And then they started on the second pontoon…