Building the Boat. Turning the sides

The weather finally turned warmer. Warm enough to enjoy and be able to work on the boat again. Once the sides were completed on the inside, including two coats of primer/undercoat, it was time to turn them over. This is not light undertaking. The sides are 36' long, 3' wide, and I estimate about 400kgs each, so there is potential for a lot of damage if you do this wrong. After a lot of head scratching, thoughts of having to organise a dozen bodies on the same day to do it by hand, I decided on a mix of 1 1/2 tons trolley jack, lots of props, strong clamps and Archimedes' attitude (was it Archimedes??) that, with a long enough lever he could move the Earth!

Surprising even me, it went very smoothly. No big problems, no panic, no dangerous falls, it just took time, working slowly and safely.

Inside now painted, one coat primer/undercoat

At about 30 degrees angle

The other side, props and trolley jack in the middle to lift

Success! The port side vertical now

Turned 180 degrees

I have added the doubling plates at the water line. the hull will be 36mm thick there

Now faired, all screw and nail holes filled. I have used car body filler for this job, ratheer than epoxy. Epoxy is too much like hard work and unnecessarily strong, in my opinion. The polyester putty is still stronge thant the wood, waterproof, and easy to sand

Now, it's time for the second side. I'll be turning it in the next few days. opefully with the experience of the first one, it will be easier and quicker too. All the parts for the doubling plates are already cut, I have the screws (marine stainless) and nails (bronze ring nails, I had a lots of them left over from other jobs).

After that's done, it will be time for epoxy/glass work, something I am not looking forward to. I don't like working with epoxy!

I have now decided on the size of the cabin. It will 30' long by 10' wide, on the outside of course, obviously a little smaller on the inside, due to the thickness of the "walls".

There will be a 2' wide cockpit at the stern and 4' wide, L shape cockpit at the stem. After all it is going to be a boat that can move, not a static barge. A bit like the Slow Lory, a lovely 25' (I think)  house-boat by Paul Gartside.