My barn was only barely big enough to accommodate Justine upside down on her construction molds. There was about 3′ of clearance between her keel and the barn’s second floor joists, and the door opening was not quite wide enough to carry her outside.
My basic plan was to gather a large crew, carry Justine out of the barn, and turn her over. She was resting on her 22 construction molds, and they added a lot of weight. But it would be necessary to keep several molds in place during carry-out and turnover to keep the hull from deforming. So my first task was to remove all but eight of her construction molds.
Preparation
It was clear that I lacked space to turn Justine over before she came out of the barn. I talked to many people to get advice about how to turn the hull over once she was outside. And I read everything I could about the topic. The technique I decided on I had read about in Howard Chapelle’s book Boatbuilding. This would involve attaching 2 x 4s across most of the construction molds that remained in the hull, extending athwartships. Each 2 x 4 would be the same length, and their ends would be able to act as bearing points as the hull was lifted up, turned over, and rolled upright. The 2 x 4s would also serve as carrying points for the work crew to move the hull out of the barn and into position outside.
I bolted 2 x 4s to the construction molds at stations 4, 7, 11, 14, 16, 19 and 23. I also kept the molds at stations 2 and 3 in place to maintain the hull’s correct beam in the forward part of the hull until after turnover. All the other molds were removed.
Execution
I needed a good-size work crew for carry-out and turnover, so we threw a party. Family members, a number of friends from Boston, and Georgetown friends and neighbors showed up to help and cheer us on.
I mostly supervised the carry-out. Some of the carrying crew were grimacing with effort at times, but there were no tense moments. The ramp from the barn was only wide enough for the people on Justine’s port side to use, and there was a process of handing-off the carrying points on the starboard side to people at ground level, but even this presented no problems.
It was tremendously satisfying to see Justine resting outside. We took a long break and discussed just how we would accomplish the turn-over.
Scot and others had a concern that the hull might tend to separate from the molds as it was being turned over, so we secured the hull and molds together with heavy straps.
We positioned padding on the ground where we expected the hull to make contact, then commenced lifting very carefully until we approached the (unstable) balance point. We’d attached lines so that people could hold on and prevent the hull from suddenly rolling, and to ease the rate at which she was lowered into position right-side up.
Once the hull was resting on the keel plank, it could be picked up by the 2 x 4s and moved into position close to the barn.
One final lifting enabled placement of blocking under the keel plank and positioning jack stands forward and aft to port and starboard to keep the hull from tipping sideways.
Party time! A cookout, sangria and beer, speeches, and a shared sense of satisfaction with a job safely executed. The date: July 12, 2014.
