DaySailer.org Forum

I have my Dad's Javelin at my shop. The entire keel, stem to transom is badly damaged. Otherwise the boat seems worth the work, it is my Dad's boat after all. Anyway, how do I flip it over without a huge crowd. I have a hoist that could lift bow straight up and lower it down the other way, but I doubt this is the best method. There's no way I'm going to do this on my back. Did that with a small hole on the Redtail.

Careen the boat. Put the mast up and lead the main halyard to the side. The mast will serve as a lever, and the main halyard can be tied off to a tree or something.

This is where I made my mistake. since I knew I was going to be working on the hull for a while, I didn't bring the mast and spars. I'll can't use my DSll mast because I have a tabernacle. It looks larger anyway. Any other ideas before I make the trip out to his place?

Other ideas...

Any spar/pole will do as a lever - you just have to jury-rig some stays to firmly hold it in place. A boom should be fine, a 2x4 or 4x4 at least 8ft long above the deck should work. Assuming suitable shackles to the chainplates, and some suitable attachment point at the top of the pole, you could use the ratcheting kind of tie-downs (ribbon). If you don't already have enough of them to trailer your boat, they're cheap, and easy to tension (don't tension too much).

If your mast is deck-stepped, you also have to anchor the pole on the mast foot. For keel stepped mast, your pole doesn't have to be keel-stepped, if you can anchor it atop the opening in the deck (and support the deck from below with e.g. some lumber. Where the pole rests, you'll have mostly compression loads, so fixing the foot of the pole should not be so challenging - especially if the jury stays attach to the top of the pole)

Roger reports that he pulls with 25lbs force or less on a 20ft lever (DS Mast) to careen his DS. For a 10ft lever, the force would double, but still something that could be managed.

Look in the personal photo section under DS180. He had a pretty good system that I've mocked (copied) before with sucess.

Baysailor:
DS180 certainly had a slick method. I have a hoist above my shop door that I can use. Getting the CG is going to be the key here. Thanks for pointing me to that gallery, I was workng on a similar idea, but that picture put it together for me.

Greenlake:
I was working on the careening (without a mast) idea , too. I fount that the Javelin mast can be replaced with a 2X3 with the corners beveled. There is a pocket between the maststep and the hull that the 2X3 can fit into. I was looking for a longer board this afternoon before I read the posts. Thanks for your ideas.

Baysailer,

I was planning on basiclly the same method of turning the boat, but with two lines around the hull. Did you do it with the single line and did the hull and woodwork hold up to the pressure with no problems?

My original thought was that the weight was too much for only one line, but if it works - then that's the way I'll do it...

Chris

I didn't do it to a DS but to a similar sized sailboat. I would either make a protective cover for the coamings or remove them just to be safe. I used a single line, an old mainsheet. The things I did differently were used a block and tackle (old blocks) instead of a hydraulic lift and left the bow tethered to the trailer in thoughts I wouldn't need a second person. Better off using your wife and kids there.

Chris,

I'm using a block and tackle from the beam over my shop door. Actually I may flip it in the shop using the center beam. Anyway, I do plan to use two lines with two blocks on a spreader bar. Also the wife and kid. I may set the sterm bach on the trailer while I sort out the bow support. I would even set it right back on the trailer with some custom blocking, then I can move out on a good day. Only problem there is I aways get nailed by the trailer tongue when I walk around the boat.

Greg