Turning the Hull

Merry Christmas!  We are actually further along than this; I've been remiss about postings for the last few days, but plan on catching everyone up.

Rolling the boat over turned out to be far easier than I thought.  The last thing we did the night before was cover the boat in a thick coating of tempura oil (soybean).  We gave the bottom another coat first thing in the morning.  Then we made sure that the bars holding the sheer apart were good and tight.  We clamped some scrap at the sheer in the way of the strapping so it wouldn't mar the hull.  After rigging straps under the hull fore and aft, connected at one end to chainfalls, we lifted the boat just enough to get the sawhorses out and then, while suspended there, Shimojo san's son and his younger brother just grabbed the rail and spun her over.  I had my video camera all set up and ready to go, so I got all ten seconds of it.  I realize that the oil was a real help in this process, as the boat just slid over the straps.

Mrs. Shimojo had her customary place at one of the chainfalls, her husband at the other.   It turns out that she worked side-by-side with her husband in the boat shop for most of his career, and daily after his accident.

After sanding the bottom seam inside the boat flush we laid out the location for our huundu.  Tomorrow we have forty of them to mortise and install.