Done Friggin' with Riggin'

This mornings session I finished friggin' with the riggin' and final cross member on the rolling frames.

First order of business was the pulley blocks at the top of the Gin Pole. I bought a 1' length of 5/16" chain to wrap around the u-bolt. Removed the hook from the pulley and replaced that with two 5/16" QuickLinks.

Looking from the opposite side you can see it better.

The chain allows the pulley block to rotate easily through 90 degs which it'll have to do as it lifts the boat over 90 degs and then begins to pay out the line as it lowers the hull.

The cable now feeds directly into the sheave without rubbing on the frame of the pulley. The cables all run straight now. No overlapping or binding anywhere.

I took a good tug on the setup with the electric winch. The frame bracing held extremely well and it wanted to lift the whole side of the boat even though it's still attached to the strongback frame. I left it there for awhile and the winch held the weight with no problems. The Gin Pole hardly moved even though the third retaining strap isn't even anchored yet. I'm happy with that.

The last part of the puzzle was the final (3rd) beam (crossmember) or whatever you want to call it. It will take part of the strain from the second pull and will get pulled by the hand winch to pull the hull sideways towards the Gin Pole.

This one won't be required to take the full weight of the hull & turning frames so I used a 1/2" plain eye bolt. Drilling through the beam for the bolt I weakened the 2X6 a little bit so I scabbed on some 1/2" plywood on each side. The diagonal 2X4 braces are screwed and bolted onto the beam and frame.

So that's it. Other than a few more screws to go in the half circles etc. the turning frame is DONE! Frigged, Rigged, Gigged and whatever, DONE!

This afternoon I'll start disassembling the strongback & forms and begin lowering the rolling frame with the hull to the floor.

Afternoon Update

After an email exchange with my buddy Jim decided to switch the cable end around a bit. It would have likely gotten bound up if I had left it on the shackle so I put another Quick Link on the second Quick Link and put the cable end on that. This way the pulley block and cable end will move together with no chance of binding up. Looks messy but I think it'll work.

Started to dismantle the forms and strongback.Opening up the bow.

And the transom. I've never seen the inside of it before! It's been covered by the transom frame!

I wasn't able to save much of the MDF forms. Not likely there's anyone around my neck of the woods that wants to build a TW28. These will get hauled off to the landfill and likely burnt.

So I've got half the forms out. Took about 4 lbs of screws out as well! :-)  Tomorrow I'll finish the rest then figure out how I'm going to remove the strongback and lower this thing to the ground.


Standby.....