Turnover – Sam Allen's Boats

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.

The angle brackets holding Justine’s construction molds to the barn floor have been removed and three of the six 2 x 4s I’ll use have been bolted to selected molds. The hull will be jacked up several inches to provide clearance so I can remove the majority of the molds before carrying Justine’s hull out of the barn.

With the hull jacked up about 6″ it is possible to get the unneeded construction molds out from under the hull. I needed to crawl under the hull to loosen and rotate some of the molds down onto the floor. Even with the hull upside down, it was exciting to be inside the hull for the first time!

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.

14 of the molds are out and the hull is ready to carry, but it’s obvious that the barn door opening is not wide enough.

We removed the sliding door, the clapboard siding, and cut out a section of the end wall to enlarge the opening. That’s Scot supervising.

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.

Twelve people were able to lift and carry Justine’s hull out of the barn. The 2 x 4s provided convenient and secure carrying points.

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.

The hull looks impressive out in the sunlight. Here you can see the projecting ends of the 2 x 4s. They’re all the same length, and their ends are all lined up.

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.

Straps secured the hull down to the construction molds that remained in the hull and to which I’d fastened the 2 x 4s.

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.

For turnover, there was a group of helpers on each side of the hull. Here, the port-side group is lifting and the starboard-side group is keeping the hull from tipping as it gets near the balance point.

Just past the tipping point, the people who had done the lifting shift roles and grab pre-rigged lines that they use to gently lower the hull onto her side.

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.

With the straps still attached, Justine was easily lifted again using the 2 x 4s and set 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.

The final task for the group was to lift the hull up so that blocking could be inserted under the keel plank, and jack stands could be placed on both sides to keep the hull from tipping. Scot bravely went under the hull to position the blocking.

Party time! A cookout, sangria and beer, speeches, and a shared sense of satisfaction with a job safely executed. The date: July 12, 2014.