A Flippin' Boat Party

One of the great milestones in the building of PocketShip is the flip. This is when the topsides and the cockpit are essentially finished so that the lower half of the boat, including the hull and keel, can be accessed by flipping the boat on its head.  Many other blogs have detailed the actual event, but not many have discussed the process to actually get to that point.  I've made other progress since and before (finished the rub rails, bought a trailer, cut the mast) but figured the flip was monumental enough to deserve its own space here.

My friends are a bit flaky, and those who aren't, are always busy. Those who are both flaky and busy are some of the more interesting people I know, and indeed some of my best friends, but man is it hard to get a few flaky, busy people together on a single Sunday afternoon, including myself. 

After multiple aborted dates, the crew finally got together to help with the flip.  And what a crowd it was.  They were computer engineers, technical writers, law students, marketers, railroad welders, and good friends, one and all.  They showed in spite of the fact that 7 out of 8 of us spent yesterday evening celebrating our buddy's wedding reception.

One showed up with massive furniture straps.  Others showed up with pulled pork, chicken wings, and booze.  All showed up with a good attitude.  And I have to reserve a special call out to the groom whose reception the night before ended at 3am.  He then woke up at 7 to help clear the reception room, tossed a few cookies over the course of the day, and showed up just as the boat got back in the garage to much applause.  I had to wait about 14 days for this evening, but what an evening it was.  Missing were Chris & Sean, they of the other Minnesota PocketShips.  Chris actually stopped by last Saturday but it was just the two of us and that just wouldn't do.  Sean was traveling and couldn't make it, either.  Hopefully they can make it to the reflip!

Testing the furniture straps.  These were affectionately renamed the strap ons.

There isn't a lot to add to the literature already out there on the flip.  It took a lot longer to clear and secure the garage than I expected.  Nearly two years of accumulated crap were gathered up and tossed.  I also almost forgot to remove the lift outs from the sole.  That would've been bad.  One of the downsides of the now upside down boat is that I can't store the power tools in the cockpit anymore.  I'll need to find an actual place for them.

Calculating the sizes. The garage hasn't looked like this in almost two years.

G and M help fit the bow.  Four others guide from behind.

A big help were the furniture dollies.  Since my garage was deemed too small to do a flip in place, we lifted the boat and settled it onto the dollies.  The whole thing got wheeled out along the concrete, then lifted onto the tarp on the lawn.  We then rolled it over the tarp, taking care to align the tires just so.  I broke apart the boat cradle as needed and will probably just stick with the tires from here on out. 

Guiding it forward over the pallet cardboard.

Wheeled and carried over to a tarp on the grass.

 

Discussing the engineering.  The lines are feathered fiberglass pieces, the weaves not quite filled.

Nearly on its head at this point, settled on tires.  This also served as a test for the garage fitting.

The only part most folks were worried about was the top part of the cabin, the two corners of the aft cabin wall and the cabin decking.  We put the tires behind these, not on them, and that worked well.  The team felt confident enough to carry the boat upside down and backwards and that confidence was rewarded with an efficient replacement.  Some members had to grip the boat by the rub rails.  I prayed they'd hold, but knew that if the snapped, I'd just make them anew.  I left the power screws in there, visible as the gold screw heads.  They are the 1/4" x 2 1/2" screws with T-30 tops.  It was the only way I could get enough leverage to make that final bend, despite heating the wood.

The team agrees the tires will be fine.

Hauling it back into the garage.  My wife, who took these photos, was needed to put the tires in place.

The crew settles in for the requisite beer shot. I'm sitting on the furniture straps.

I was pleased to see that the wreckage of the hull was not as severe as I expected, though still quite a mess.  I joined the hull panels quite awhile ago; the same joints would be much better now.   Epoxy drips from the keelson and other areas poke out here and there.  The transom area is in good shape.  This won't be too bad!   It will take some work and quite a bit of epoxy to address these issues but they're imminently fixable.  And the boat looked terrific out on the lawn, amazingly so.  I'd never seen my boat out of the garage before, in full view.  It was so nice to be able to walk around the living, breathing, 3-dimensional object and take a few steps back and admire the lines once more. I answered a lot of questions about the boat and one of the fellas said he would look into the kit.  I'll take my CLC commission in epoxy, please.

We ended the evening with good beer, some baseball, the Packers, and plans for next time.  I am deeply thankful to the crew, those who were able to join and also those who were here in spirit.

Oh my.. there's a lot of work yet to do.