Turning Boat Over

[Alan Peck]

After many delays, I am finally about ready to turn my boat over. Its a 15 ft. runabout. I don't really know what it weighs, but I guess around 400 to 500 lbs.

I plan to get at least four people (hopefully 6). We will carry the boat from the driveway to the adjacent grass area. Then we can set it down and roll it over. As far as lifting it off the building frame, we can just hold it by the gunwales.

My question, which may seem kind of dumb, is I suddenly realized that I don't know how we are going to carry it back to the building area. Once its right side up, there is nothing to hold on to, to lift it.

I hate to build some elaborate jig just to carry it. Does anyone have any ideas? After all the hard parts, like bending chines, etc. I can't believe I don't have any ideas for this seemingly simple step.

Thanks

[gary porter]

Alan, Just run straps, ropes or whatever under the boat and up. Put a bit of a loop at each end for handle and your off. You could also get some pieces of rigid conduit, pipe, logs, whatever for rollers and just push it back in. Have a think on it and you'll come up with many different ways.
Gary

[G. Schollmeier]

Alan,
Congratulations on reaching another benchmark. One simple way to carry it would be to make a couple of slings from some rope. I would think that would do it. You know we want pictures.
Gary

[G. Schollmeier]

:D :D :D

[Steve Lansdowne]

Lengths of PVC pipe are inexpensive, lightweight, and work well as rollers. Assign one person to be the one to retrieve rollers from the back end of the boat and reposition them at the front end as you move along.

[jeff pierce]

What are you putting the boat on once its back in the shop? Generally the building frames I've seen are only designed to hold the boat while its inverted. What I'm getting at is if you are building a cradle to hold the upright hull, it may be useful to put casters on the bottom. Then you can wheel the cradle out of the shop to the boat, minimizing the need to carry the upright hull to that necessary to get it placed over the cradle. This worked well for me.

A year ago I rolled my 16' runabout exactly as you have planned. I did it with 4 guys, including myself. It turned out to be very easy. Once it was rolled, we lifted it right from the shears onto the waiting cradle. What I feared would be an arduous task was over in about 2 minutes. Once it was on the cradle, I rolled the cradle back into the shop by myself. With it on wheels, I can reposition it in the shop anytime I want.

I don't know the design of your boat, so I don't know what type of construction we are talking about here. In the case of my plywood hull boat, the hull weight at the rollover stage couldn't have been any more than 250 lb. You may be significant overestimating the current hull weight.

Don't sweat it, its going to be easy. If you do get in a bind, fabric straps (or rope, or even garden hose), make good slings. I'm betting you won't need them.

Good luck and glad to hear you are making progress.

-Jeff

[wolfietuk]

This may be the proper time to get the trailer. It is made to hold the boat, and is fairly easy to move around.

Rick

[jlapratt]

Alan;

I just turned over my 16' San Juan Dory last week. I'm guessing she weighs a couple hundred pounds at this stage of completion. I attached a c-clamp to the transom and ran a lag bolt into the beam running above the garage door. Using a come-along, I lifted the transom high enough to pull the building jig out from under it (the bow was resting on the stem). With my wife and son acting as the countering ballast, I then simply lifted the bow and she rolled right over. Set the bow down on some plywood and lowered the transom onto some 2x6s and violla! You can set yours onto whatever jig or trailer you want. With the smaller, lighter boats, it is really not too difficult.

Good luck,
Jeff

[Alan Peck]

Thanks everyone for the ideas. I think I'll try either the rope under the hull or the PVC pipe method.