Ideas on how to flip a big boat?

A

Andrew Holley

Well-known member
As some of you know, my summer project has been building a rather large duck hunting boat. The boat measures 24' long, 8 1/2' wide (exactly) and about 4' high. I will finish up the rough inside work this week and am looking at flipping the boat this weekend. When I started the project I didn't have this part figured out, thinking something would come to me during construction, well I haven't come up with what I would concern a good idea yet.

Last year when I built the Scaup, four guys lowered off the stand and gently rolled it over. With this boat, I am very concerned about the amount of stress rolling would put on the edges, once upside down I think it would be fine, I am worried about it setting on it's side that concerns me.

The two approaches I have come up with are as follows:

1) A friend/customer has a high lift forklift, where the boom extends out, supposedly can lift alot of weight. I thought about having a 20' beam of something laying across the forks with several pulleys hanging off it, with rope creating a craddle affair, then turning the boat over in the rope craddle.

2) The second idea would be to build something inside the boat, kind of like a spit you would roast a pig on. The boat is built with 3/4 plywood bulkheaded every two feet. I can buy 4" pipe, 1/4 sidewall up to a length of 21'. As of now, the floor is not in, so with some construction grade plywood, I could cut a hole for the pipe and screw them to the bulkheads. Now the pipe is not long enough to go alway thur the boat, nor do I want a 4" hole in the bow. Up there I would use a 1 1/2 solid rod. Then lift the boat high enough on both ends and spin the boat on the rods. The weak point would be the small rod, and it would still take alot of strength to spin the boat over.

Any other ideas?
 
Andrew,

You might want to have a look here http://www.fishyfish.com/tolmanskiff.html. If you scroll down you'll see plenty of construction photo's and in some of them there are the different ways builders have rolled their Tolman Skiffs. This might spark an idea for you.

Ryan
 
Andrew,
When i built my scaup i put in the bow eye before i flipped it. I took my skid steer attached a line to the bucket and the bow eye. I lifted the rope up and used this line as a pivot point. Two of us were able to role the boat over in a controled fashion from the stern. I don't know if this can be done in your case due to the weight. are you able to hoist off any beams from over head. If so you might be able to life the stern using a pully system. Attaching a line to either corner to aid in the rolling process.
Good luck
colin
 
Thought about that Colin, however, my garage ceiling height is only 95", boat is too wide to turn sideways. However, wonder if I could lift it from the back, similar to how you lifted yours from the front and then spin it. Thanks for the idea, I will give it some thought.

Anyone else?
 
Andrew,

I've seen some slick pictures of rolling jigs someplace. Maybe devlin's book, maybe online. The one I like most is a sort of hoop shaped deal that makes the surface to roll rounded. I think a lot of them use tires to cushion the final blow.

Charlie

Someting like this:

[inline simplepic.jpg]

simplepic.JPG
 
You will never flip it inside if your ceiling is only 95". Are you building it on a trailer? I'd roll it out in the yard, slide it off the trailer, flip it with a few guys and get it back on the trailer. If you have the bulkheads in, it shouldn't hurt to roll it up on it's side. You may want a couple braces screwed on to keep it from falling when you get it past center.
 
Here is what a neighbor did with a using a small truck mounted crane, this is about a 30' boat.
a1.jpg
a5.jpg
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See page 118 of Devlin's book for "a shop-made rollover jig". PP 117-120 are all about rolling the hull of stitch and glue boats over.

Brute force works too, but as Sam Devlin says "You will want to avoid finding yourself with several thousand pounds of weight and thousands of dollars of hull midway through the rollover, with conflicting opinions about what to do next!"

Charlie
 
I haven't built a boat quite that big before, Andrew, but just to give you some ideas I'll show you a couple of pics of my flipover jig I made during construction of the Peregrine.

overwheels.jpg

I made some "wheels" out of scrap plywood and attached them to one side of the boat, and made a jig for supporting the boat once flipped and attached it upside down to the boat prior to flipping. I made this jig in such a way that it would be easy to skid the boat around on the concrete once flipped (so I could move it back to my side of the garage, and not have it on the wife's side :) ) She and I were able to push the boat over easily.

turnover.jpg

Good Luck, and send us some pics once you've got her done.

Ed.
 
Andrew, check with a local mechanic or car restoration company/club, they may have a rig that will flip a car like a pig on a spit. i've seen an old mustang on such a rig, but not sure if it will work for a boat. Good luck.
 
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