Back on the Trailer!

Well, we finally got to a point that we felt we could get that boat back on the trailer.  The keel had not yet been done, and would need a significant amount work.  Looking at the calendar, and knowing that it would take us way too long, we decided to go with a pro.  James has done this several times, and has access to templates to get it just right.  But in order for him to work on the keel, we had to get the boat on the trailer. So once again, out come the concrete blocks and the 10 ton jack!

 So, this was the goal: get the boat up high enough, by raising the beams one block at at time, that that we can get the trailer underneath.  Also, we need to be sure that we space the blocks (towers) far enough apart so we can back the trailer underneath.  Took a bit of thinking and planning, because the boat would roll up, but once we started the stacks, it would be hard to move them.  Oh, and did I mention that the boat needed to sit right in the middle of the beams, so it would sit on the trailer properly?  Lots of details to watch.

 So far it was looking pretty good.  Notice how the aft port block stack is slightly lower and leaning outward somewhat?  This was something we really had to watch, because when raising the opposite side, the blocks preferred to lean and stay flat with the beam, rather than staying flat with the earth and having the beam pivot on the edge of the blocks.  It was easy to fix, simply relieve the pressure on that stack by jacking up the beam on that side and letting the block stack level out before dropping the beam back down.  Was just a bit of a pain, because it meant a few extra steps.

Finally, we got the boat up in the air.  Felt a whole lot higher when we did it, and was a bit un-nerving to have it just swinging there.  In the end, I think we got lucky, because the boat ended up pretty much in the middle  of the beams, and the stacks were far enough apart to let the trailer underneath, and we had enough blocks to get it up just high enough.

After that it was time to put the pads on the trailer (we had left them off to help with clearing the beams), rais the pads up to hold the hull, and then remove the beams.  Once the beams were down, the block stacks came down, and ta-da .... the boat was off the ground, and back on the trailer.  All-in-all, since this was the 3rd iteration, I would guess that it took us just about 2.5 hours to do this.  Not too bad!