Lot easier than I thought

Raising the Gin Pole by myself was a lot easier than I thought it would be. An extra pair of hands to run the winch would have helped but as it turned out wasn't really necessary.

Wrapped the pole in an old shipping blanket so it wouldn't scratch the hull. The lead weight on the cable got wrapped as well and some old carpet to protect the hull from the wire.

Up she goes. About a foot & half each time. I had to run around the boat to check every so often till I could see the pole & weight was free of the hull.

One more lil' pull and over the chine it goes.

Firmly seated in the hole. Not as far down as I would have liked but it'll be Ok.

Ooops, Houston, we have a problem. There are two stays that run across the shed. They keep the shed from bowing out too far when I lift a weight with the winch. The pole won't clear them. You can just barely make them out in this pic.

I removed the stay and up she went without a hitch.

I had to lop off the top 10" or so to get it up to the angle I wanted. It gives me a few more inches of clearance between the boat side and the pole. The lift will be almost perfectly vertical which I think is good.

I stuck this piece on below the floor level thinking if the pole wants to lay down this will help with it pushing against the compacted dirt possibly spreading out the load over a larger area.

One of the smartest things I ever did was rig the electric winch into the ridge of the shed. I can't tell you how many times I've used it during this project. I've flipped all the long panels with it which would have been virtually impossible to do without the winch.

Certainly something to consider if you're contemplating going down this route. The one I have is just a cheapo 1500 lb 12 V winch from Canadian Tire. It's certainly earned it's keep over the years.

Lifting and pulling power will come from a 2500 lb 12 V electric winch and an 800 lb trailer winch. Both will mount to directly to the Gin Pole. The electric winch has a remote control which will allow me to run it within 20 feet. The trailer winch as you know is manually powered. It will pull the bottom of the boat sideways as we lift the hull allowing it to rotate on the rolling frames.

The Project Manager stopped in today to overlook the workin's! His look sort of reminds me of some astonishment as if he's saying: "You filled in the hole before letting me use it?"  :-)

Have to make a run to the hardware store for some bolts, nuts & washers to mount up all this stuff. Grocery store is on the agenda as well. I haven't made the ole' Mummy a nice BBQ dinner in a while so that's gotta happen today too.


Standby.....