Some people flip houses, we flip boats.

Saturday May 23rd was a big day.  The "crane maestro", Al Haines drove his big Terex crane up from Fort Myers. Al had a plan that worked like a charm.  With the help of Dawn's brother Alan, the boat was prepped, lifted and flipped in under two hours.

Click below to see photos showing the process:

 SLIDE SHOW #1  - 1st 15 photos

SLIDE SHOW #2 - 8 more photos 

BEFORE

AFTER

Fabricating hatches and messing with chemicals

There is a lot to show in this post-but first a photo of John goofing off.

Fabricating a hatch-

Port fuel tank hatch 

 

 We found a manufacturer of soundproofing coatings at the IBEX (International Boatbuilders Expo) and John coated one hatch to see how it coated.  So far so good.

The five aft deck hatches are built and fit nicely. 

He needed a way to etch and clean the aluminum before painting.  John mixed up a concoction of phosphric acid, glycol and Simple Green to test.  It works well except on the spots of sap from pine needles blowing onto the boat.