BOOM!

Remain calm. Breathe! It wasn't an explosion! You can sit down now!

Two days of futzin' around making a boom to attach to the Gin Pole. The purpose of which is to lift the engine into the boat.

The engine dry weights 565 lbs. With fluids let's say 600 lbs. Nice round figure.

As you saw in Sept of 2014 the Gin Pole was more than capable enough of lifting over twice the weight of the engine and hold it there. Amazing considering the little electric winch was only $160 at Harbor Freight.

Fabricated two brackets that'll swivel on a 1/2" eye bolt that was embedded in the Gin Pole for the flip.

Brackets fabbed to swivel on eye bolt

Long story short I managed to single handed hoist this hunk of wood and metal up to the Gin Pole and get it bolted & strung into position.

The Boom!

I may add another eye bolt to the end and double up on the hoisting cable. This rig only has to work 'once' just like the Gin Pole did when we flipped the boat.

The cable ratchet is 2000 lb working capacity. The hoisting cable is 2500 lb capacity. The boom swivels on 1/2" Grade 8 bolt with nyloc nut. The sheave I borrowed from one of the 8000 lb blocks we used to flip the boat. I'll anchor the Gin Pole pretty much the same as we did for the flip. Maybe run one more strap to the aft end of the shed to take up strain as we lift the engine.

I plan to put tires & plywood on the bottom of the boat for the lift so if the engine falls it'll wreck the plywood etc. and not go through the bottom of the boat!

Standby....