TOPIC: Flipping the hull....

Now that all the work is done on the inside of the Lake N Sea hull, It's time to work on the bottom... That means flipping the hull.

I've been thinking about a lot of different ways to do it easily, and alone, in my workshop. I could have hauled the boat all the way up to my upstairs garage, where the overhead lift is, and done it there, but I got to thinking about an easier way. I got the idea from the various boat rotisseries I've seen out there.

It seemed to me that there would be a pivot point somewhere- Near the center of gravity- and If I lifted the boat from there, it would spin easily. After finishing the floor installation, I drilled the hole in the transom for the drain, which is right at the floor level. It seemed to me this would be just about the perfect place to 'spin' the boat from.

I used a section of 1/2" all thread. I used a 1" bushing in the transom, ran the all thread through that, and used a washer and nut on either end to hold it in place. Then, I built a stand that was high enough to allow the boat to pivot all the way around... Here are some photos-

I used my engine hoist to lift the bow-





Once the bow eye was up to the level of the pivot on the transom, the hull was free to spin- VERY easily, too-



Now that it's flipped, i can move the work stand back under it, and start lowering-





And, She's flipped, ready to start working-



You can see the stand I used to pivot the transom in this photo.

It worked pretty well- Once I was set up, it only took a minute to flip it over, and was FAR less stressful than other methods I've seen and/or tried. Plus- I didn't have to bother all the 'able bodied' people in the neighborhood this time!

-Andrew

I think you flipped just fine. Now after the bottom is finished you may want to get some help just to be sure nothing rotten happens.

Just a thought but lift it back up and put some 2/4's across your cart so the boat is not so low to work on.

D

herters59 wrote:

Just a thought but lift it back up and put some 2/4's across your cart so the boat is not so low to work on.

D

You read my mind

I had already planned to do that- Ne sense bending over if you don't have to!

Robert-

That's the plan- Also, I think I'll take it out onto the lawn and do it in the grass, so if it should fall, it'll have a softer landing

-Andrew

Wow! I need to flip one of mine too. Your pivot slot doesn't even look that deep. I figured I would use my engine lift on the bow just like that and have a couple guys grab the stern and flip.
Did the all thread bend from the stress?

Andrew, I thought about you rolling boat hulls over to work on them yesterday afternoon while I was on a creeper watersanding and buffing the bottom of the crestliner.Now THAT was no fun !!

Chryslerguy wrote:

Did the all thread bend from the stress?

No- I bent it- The transom is angled, and I bent the allthread to match, so it would be parallel when I lifted the boat-



Don't know if I needed to do that or not, but it didn't hurt.

Jim L wrote:

Andrew, I thought about you rolling boat hulls over to work on them yesterday afternoon while I was on a creeper watersanding and buffing the bottom of the crestliner.Now THAT was no fun !!

Yeah- Thats no fun... I've been there before. Plus, It's a pain to get those areas that are under the bunks.

I'm going to have quite a few areas to repair on the bottom of this one- And doing fiberglass work overhead is a royal pain. There is enough to worry about without having to fight gravity, too

-Andrew

Great setup, beats the old mattress and case of beer trick unless of course you have neighbors who are just curious.
Keep the rotisserie handy for the trailer when it's time for that.

Yes lets get gravity on our side. Sounds funny but true.

Glad to see "the flip" went well Andrew, nice work as always! Just a thought for "the reverse flip". A short piece of stout rope through the bow eye - then hook the engine hoist to it - adds to the "flexibility" of that connection and gets the boom a little farther away from the hull.

I like the pivot stand idea though, looks more stable than the method I used. (Still have "the reverse flip" ahead, always looking for a better way to do things ya know!)

MarkS wrote:

Just a thought for "the reverse flip". A short piece of stout rope through the bow eye - then hook the engine hoist to it - adds to the "flexibility" of that connection and gets the boom a little farther away from the hull.

I thought about that, And tried it- But the boat didn't seem to want to 'pivot' as well... So, I put a twist in the hoist chain, and made sure that the hook was aligned the 'right' way so when it was pivoted, it didn't bind on the bow eye.

Excellent work, great idea Andrew. Mark has a good idea about the short rope through the bow eye, no bumping the boom once the bottoms done.

Bob

63 Sabre wrote:

Great setup, beats the old mattress and case of beer trick unless of course you have neighbors who are just curious.

Awesome Sabre! Guessing that the "case of beer and mattress trick" only works once...they always remember the itchin' from dislodged fibers.

After burning through all of your curious neighbors, scowling wife. and even the oblivious brother-in-law, most of us eventually resort to the creation of a Rube Goldberg device like Andrew has.

Keep up the good work Andrew.

...g

Damn! Double post-oops