|
Last Fall Dave designed and had welded two heavy-duty channel iron jack beams. Each beam is made up of two 6" x 7' pieces of channel iron spaced 8" apart with 8" channel iron welded between them. On each end is a heavy- duty piece of square tubing welded across the top of the beams.
|
|
Railroad jacks will be placed on each end of the lifting beams. Just inboard of the square tubing on each end is a heavy-duty 2" pipe coupling welded in the center of the beam. This will take a 2' heavy wall pipe with a jack stand head mounted on top and braced to the other side with chain. |
One jacking beam is placed under the deadwood just forward of the rudder. The other will be placed just forward of the iron ballast on the keel. Wedges and blocks will be used under the ballast to help support the ballast on the way up. Also, all the jack stands will have pressure as we go up. |
| Sarah
will be raised about 20" to allow for the two small-size railroad
rails and a iron dolly. The cast iron ballast will be supported
on the dolly and temporary braces will be welded to the dolly to
keep it in the upright position. The keel bolts will be cut using
a Sawsall, the wedges will de driven out to lower the ballast on
to the dolly approx. 1/2", and the ballast will be moved out of
the way on the tracks. After the ballast is moved the dead wood
will be removed. This will be easy as the forklift can handle that
weight.
Internally, above the forward jacking position a brace was constructed with a 2" x 6" crossbar screwed to the stringers on each side and braced up to the sheer clamp. The goal is to add additional internal support because the forward bulkhead is partially disassembled and one frame on the starboard side has been completely removed. |
| For
the first time in over two years, Sarah moved. Unfortunately, it
was only 10" up and not to the water. May 9, 2002 |
|
Somehow, we've found ourselves lost in a time warp. Days become weeks, and weeks become months... We were reminded of how long we'd been working on getting Sarah jacked up when I started to compose an update for the Spring Concordian newsletter. I dug out the Fall issue to see what I said last, and there, a full six months ago, was a mention of having the jacking bars welded. We definitely had plenty to keep us occupied, but getting Dave, the yard owner/shipwright, the welder, and enough help all assembled was about as easy as aligning Jupiter with Mars. Finally, on May 9, 2002, with me conveniently out of town and out of the way, they got her jacked up approximately 10 inches. Ten inches doesn't seem like much, but it will make all the difference in the world. |
|
Using a railroad jack on each end of the jacking bar, alternating between the front and rear jacking bars, supporting the boat with 12 jackstands, and keeping her keel supported with pre-cut wood blocks and wedges at all times, up she went. |
The jackstands were kept tight at all times and additional supports were welded to the stands on the jacking bars. |
It's a good thing I wasn't there. They'd of had to have given me general anesthesia before I could of stood welding going on that close to her dead wood. |
For the rear support base, Dave used 4"x4"s nailed together with 2"x8"s sitting on a 3/4 ply base. There's also 3/4 ply in the holes under the jacking bars that's not really visible because of the sand and dirt, and 3/4 ply under the jackstand bases. |
|
For the rear support base, Dave used 4"x4"s nailed together with 2"x8"s sitting on a 3/4 ply base. There's also 3/4 ply in the holes under the jacking bars that's not really visible because of the sand and dirt, and 3/4 ply under the jackstand bases. |
At first glance, this seemed to be a pretty scary arrangement, but it's actually quite a marvel the way they arranged the supports and tied everything together to keep the blocks from kicking out. |
QUITE A DAY'S WORK!