about 500kg and again 6m long. But by the time it
was turned the internal ballast was in the keel, and
this gave the hull a very strong righting moment – that
is – the she wanted to go over when she reached a
certain point. As a result, we used lifting tackle off
the roof beam and a horizontal retaining rope passed
around the leg of a work bench attached to the wall
to control the turn. In that situation due to the strong
righting moment the rope ended up taking more strain
than I’d anticipated, and began to pull the bench away
from the wall. As there were only two of us I built a
temporary frame to straddle the hull to allow Jewell to
roll in a more controlled manner.
This month, we turned the hull of the 10m Francois
Vivier designed Pilbara schooner. Although the hull
weighed about 400kg, we couldn’t use the lifting gear
because of her length and how the workshop has
been organised for this build. So I put the call out to
the my comrades in the Old Gaffers Association in
WA, as well as family and friends and had 12 able
bodied people on the day. I’d prepared by giving
the workshop a really good tidy up – moving all
machinery that could be moved out of the way as far
as possible. I also
gave the floor a good
sweep because
we’d need our
shoes to have good
purchase on the
floor. Unfortunately,
the protective steel
belting for the bilge
runners and skeg
and forefoot weren’t
ready in time, so I
screwed a couple
of sacrificial pieces
of pine to the bilge
runners and taped
old carpet to the
skeg and forefoot
by way of protection
as well as a pineHull turned and
ready for work.I also gave
the floor a
good sweep
because we’d
need our
shoes to
have good
purchase on
the floor