It was another beautiful day, sunny, dry and no wind. Today I hoped to get Shoal Waters onto the working trailer and back under cover for the rest of the restoration work. All I needed to get done under the waterline has now been completed and I now need to be able to work on her without her being exposed to the winter weather.
Not that it is very Autumn or Winter weather right now, more like Summer.
The first order of the day was to raise the hull up in the strops another six to eight inches or so, the intention being that she will not bump the concrete when we turn her the right way up. I used the railway sleeper block as a guide and raised her up one of those. This is the result.
You can just see on the horizon a pall of smoke rising straight up. No wind. None at all.
Here’s a shot without the boat in the way. As I said a lovely day.
Shoal Waters is quite high up in the strops right now but quite stable. The blocks are “just in case”.
Once that had been done I turned my attention to the trailer, clearing away all the stuff that has been left around it because there’s space with the boat there. Here it is, ready to be wheeled out when the hull is the right way up again.
I cut off the very last cross bar at the end of the trailer, it serves no purpose now, is very rusty and lowers the ground clearance by about three inches. I took a grinder to it and it was soon gone. This make the trailer easier to wheel in and out of the barn as it no longer touches the ground at the back. We will see if that is the same once the boat is on place.
Time for a cup of tea.
Task completed. Shoal Waters is now the right way up again, on the working trailer and back under cover.
This is the hull in the fully vertical position, and doesn’t that bottom look fine ?
Back in the barn again.
It was 18th July that Shoal Waters was inverted on the hard standing, nine weeks and four days ago with work being carried out almost every day during that time. What remains to be done is almost trivial in comparison.
Now I need to get her ready for another leak test, but there’s a bit of work needing to be done on the centerplate case that I stopped after the first leak test
Time for a cup of tea.