Fliping the boat over

[radman]

I have a 18' chris- craft sea skiff. When I got the boat it was upside down
I trucked it to my house upside down and put it in the barn upside down.
When I finish working on the bottom I plan to turn it rightside up, the boat
weight is about 1,500 lbs. I think if I renforce the barn truss' they will hold the
weight. I have an engine jack that I can attach to the mouring bolt at the bow
but I am not sure the bolt will hold the weight of the front. I am looking for
ideas on how to flip it over with limited manpower.
Thanks Curt

[Meerkat]

One idea i've seen is to build a rolling cradle. Sam Devlin shows this in his book "Devlin's Boatbuilding: How to Build Any Boat the Stitch-and-Glue Way". Essentially the idea is to build a cradle on the overturned boat that has a semi-circular profile. Then you lever it over and control it's turning.

I doubt the bow will or should play any part in rolling the boat over.

[WWheeler]

If your barn is in decent shape, the beams should stand 1500lbs. easily. I've been using the old drive shed on my farm, and it's an excellent building for boats.

You could try putting slings or webbing around the deck, and using a chain hoist or block and tackle. If the hoists is attached to one slide of the slings, the boat will lift and roll. It's getting the landing right that's the big deal.

I've been doing something similar with an 18 ft sailboat, using the block and tackle but it's much lighterm, maybe 500lb. A chain hoist is good because it holds itself in place. Probably two would be better, fore and aft. The big issue might be compressing the boat on the gunnels with the slings.

Another thing I've done is to put the slings around the boat and insert a log into the slings, then lift the log with a loader. This was to pick a boat up off a trailer, so the underside could be painted.

[Jack C]

Easy. Set up a system of an endless strap that goes under the hull and up through blocks in the overhead. Okay, so if that doesn't evoke a mental image, look at the pictures of how I did it at http://www.stompingground.com/users/jclayton/ select Boats, NIS18, Construction 3 and scroll down the page to the turn-over.

Jack

[Ross Faneuf]

Endless straps (5/8 dacron braid, in my case) and blocks were how I did; and Ceol Mor was about 3800# at that point.

[BongoCruiser]

I flipped my 17' ChrisCraft using 2 chain hoists and some 1" nylon rope. I put an old mattress on the floor and did a lift and roll. Much easier than I feared. When I needed to get the engine in and out I called the local tow truck guy. They are pretty cheap on a fun project like an old boat.

[radman]

Thanks for all the ideas, I have about 2-3' on each side so rolling it over
in place with ropes and pullys sounds like the way to go. I should be
ready to turn it over next week, will let you know how it went.
thanks curt

[imported_Dutch]

The chain fall method is how I turn my boats- a nylon strap encirles the boat aft and the forward fall attaches to the bow eye-If you take your time and use old tires to rest it on as it is progressively rolled and let the weight of the boat itself do the majority of the work and think about what youre doing and dont try to do it all with muscle youll be suprised how easy it will go. I believe Stan Vs web site has a pic of him turning one of his using a similar method.