She’s inverted safe and sound. What a relief!

I ordered two lifting strops the Saturday before last and they still have not arrived 10 days later so I used some thick climbing rope to fashion some suitable slings. The boat was then turned over. To see a video of another hull being turned in the same way which gave me the idea see this URL.

Some more parts for Naiad arrived today, two chrome plated bronze T-Cleats, two 4” bronze cleats, two 3” bronze cleats and three 3 metre 2” diameter bamboo poles. One of the poles will be the topsail yard, one will be converted to a quant and the third is a spare!

Now I have to start a new task list to get the repairs done. Here’s the next three.

• Remove the bilge keel. The bilge keel has to be removed on the starboard side as it covers some of the hull that will be rebuilt. However, I need to put it back again so the removal must result in an intact bilge keel separate from the hull.
• Plug all the holes. All the holes in the hull except the guide holes and the ones that will be removed by the repair need to be filled. I’ll use epoxy and a suitable thickener for that.
• Make a router jig. In order to get a straight line when using the router I have to use a jig to guide it otherwise it will go all over everywhere and ruin the hull. So the jig is important!

Ready to go. The rope slings are under the hull and the slack has been taken up.

Lifted and the trailer taken away. Nail biting bit here as she’s off the ground and if she drops she could be damaged.

Lower away on the right-hand side.

And haul up on the left-hand side.

Lower away on the right-hand side again.

And up on the left. Rinse and repeat until…

…she rolls over.

Up on the left, down on the right until…

… level but the wrong way up!.

Now up on both sides until the cradle can be pushed under.

Then lower on to the cradle and slacken the ropes and take them away.

The inverted hull pushed over to the right so that I can get past on the left. Done.

The cleats that arrived today. I didn’t get a photo of the bamboo poles, they’re too long for that. Use your imagination.