Turning the Hull


This is where we are today. The building frame is trussed up in strategic places, the rope hoists are in place, the ropes are ready, she's back on her wheels for the trip out of the building shed, I've done this in my mind what must be hundreds of times, we're ready to go! So, of course, it is raining cats and dogs.

When the rain finally stops, we hook up the Jeep and pull the boat out of the garage. This shows a good view of my "quick and dirty" rollover cradle. It's very well padded with several layers of old carpet.

Here's a shot of the tackle we used, it's a rope hoist rated at 1000 pounds. The one on this side will control the roll rate once we get past the center of balance. The corner of the deck made a convenient anchor point.

The view from the deck showing the line arrangement. In addition, there was another hoist and line assembly going in the opposite direction to pull the boat up to the balance point.


At this point there are only two station molds left in the hull, numbers 3 and 6. Their legs are braced up and are no longer attached to the building frame. The stem and stern posts have been severed from the ladder frame as well. The two legs on the far side where I am standing are resting in shallow depressions in the turf to keep them from slipping out unexpectedly.

All it took to get started was a good shove, and letting out line on the near hoist, before we knew it we were nearly half the way over. It went very smoothly and we were in control the whole way. My wife, Barb, ran the hoist on this side. The laminated frame at station 4 is visible here.

I tried the same trick to get her on the way for the second half of the trip. It was actually too heavy this time, so I got on the hoist at the playhouse to get her to the balance point again.

It was like watching slow motion as Barb gently eased the boat the last bit to right side up. My overbuilt cradle proved to be more than up to the task.

And that's that. Mom and Dad check out all the work to be done on the interior while our older daughter proudly presents the results of the day's activities. The hull was again placed on the wheeled building frame and rolled back into the garage. Everything worked as expected and it went off without a hitch with just the two of us, with our younger daughter taking pictures and the other acting as a runner and "go-fer". We'll take the weekend off and then I'll see about adding all that stuff that goes inside the boat.

© Dale Hymanyk 2022