Today was long awaited. Iris passed the technical inspection! Because of her age --she was constructed before the introduction of the "CE" mark-- in Spain, Iris needs to be certified by a naval engineer. In practice this means measuring the boat and doing some 'stability tests'. As agreed, I met the engineer at 11:15h in Port Olimpic. I brought two volunteering colleagues from work to assist in the stability tests (we needed some heavy weights -- thanks Enric and Pablo!). We moved Iris 100m down to the gas station in a fair 15-knot wind (quite a satisfying experience after so much time at the berth). I showed the guy some blueprints of the Wauquiez Centurion 32 and we took some additional measurements to make sure the documentation wasn't lying. Then we had to wait for the inspector from Capitan�a Mar�tima who would arrive at 12 o�clock to supervise the stability tests and inspect the boat. At 13 hours, the travel-lift operator came to inform us that he was about to go for lunch and that it would be impossible to lift Iris out of the water this same morning. At 13:15h the inspector finally arrived. He didn't bother about the travel-lift --saving me 60€-- and we went straight on with the stability tests. Wow, this is a high-tech procedure! Four people go stand on deck at port side while the engineer measures the angle of inclination: 7 degrees, apparently safe enough. Could have done that myself and save me a month of waiting and 600€! Well, ok, he also measured freeboard, the length of the hull, beam...

After that, the inspector quickly went through the safety equipment on board, checked the serial number on the engine and the hull, admired my professional black-water tank installation and approved Iris VII for 6 people. "Call us in 10 days for the certificate". Altogether it didn't take us more than 20 minutes...