Getting ready for the side pull
The Morgan is resting on a giant cradle made up of I-beams on wheels. These wheels ride along railroad-type tracks. We’ve painted them yellow so that people can see them better.
Next Tuesday, we’ll pull the boat sideways along these tracks until we get to the tracks that lead to the lift dock. There are square metal pads where the tracks intersect, and these allow the wheels to be turned 90 degrees to change direction. There are anchor points set into the concrete that we’ll use to attach winches for pulling the boat sideways.
This will be a slow, careful process. Count on it.
After the boat is pulled to the lift dock tracks, we’ll jack up the cradle by each wheel, turn the wheel, lower the jack, and move on to the next wheel. This will take time. Once all the wheels are turned, we’ll move the boat down to the lift dock where she will stay until launch day. Once she’s on the dock, we’re lighting the grill and opening beers. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Here’s the progress over the past week or so.
Bob and team have been making steady progress on removing the staging. Here’s the port side on the morning of June 12th.
By noon the same day.
Carrying away starboard staging frames on June 13th.
As the staging comes down, all of the nice OSHA-approved staging planks are stacked for storage.
I don’t think that the Seaport will have to buy staging planks again. Ever.
Back to disassembly…
Port side is completely clear by the 14th.
Removing the stern scaffolding that same day.
By the 16th, the stern is now clear, with only the two tall transom shores left. They’ll stay in place for as long as possible.
As the staging comes down, the keel blocks and shores are prepped for being underwater. In this photo, Sean and Tim are strapping the keel blocks to the cradle.
The last thing we want is for our primary supports shifting or floating away while the boat is in the water.
The shores are getting chains to hold them in place as well.
These replace the come-a-longs that have been holding the shores up to now.
And lastly, all of the decking that was installed over the I-beams is now coming off.
Today was a full court press to remove all of this decking.
It was a cacophony of hammers, drills, and pry-bars.
As before, we de-fang (remove nails & screws) anything worth saving and put it into storage.
By 11 am, port was almost completely cleared out.
It wasn’t just paid staff on this project. A work gang of volunteers pitched in with a will right alongside the regulars. Here they are back on the starboard quarter.
By June 19th, all of the staging and decking should be removed.
All of this activity around the boat is only one part of a very long punch list. Scott and his team have pretty much cleared the interior scaffolding from the hold now.
Jon has finished up his hawse pipes.
Painting has been the big push over the past week. Here, Maggie and Evie work on the starboard quarter.
Shelly rolls on bottom paint a little farther forward.
Evie and Ali working the topsides on port.
Jeff takes care of a hole that needed to be filled.
This Saturday was a big push to finish up the bottom paint. By Sunday, she looked like this:
Quite a change, eh?
As of the 17th, the starboard quarter was just about done. The primer coat was done, and all we needed was the final black coat.
Sean and Maggie to the rescue!
By the end of the day, that area was off the checklist.
Up forward, the bow is painted, and the beaded strake and rail cap are getting their coats of accent white.
Also at the bow, Matt has finished up the main gammon knee structure now. He’s planed a slight taper into it,
and painted everything.
The wood for the bowsprit has arrived from the west coast and is waiting to be shaped.
That’s a hat on top of the piece to give it scale. It’s massive. This piece will replace the old bowsprit, for obvious reasons.
Matt has also been fairing off the rest of the stem.
That’s done and painted now.
Check.
The risers add a little height above the bulwarks cap. The forward risers have the Morgan’s name carved and painted on them. Here are Matt and Alex working out their attachments for craning them up into the boat.
Ready to be hauled up.
Once up on the boat, John clamps the port riser in place.
And there she is!
We use wrought iron drifts to fasten the risers to the cap and frames. Wrought iron is very hard to come by these days. We happen to have a good supply that came from old tiger cage bars, rescued from the Memphis Zoo many years ago. Wrought iron is rolled and folded into shape, and as a result, has a grain to it that’s similar to wood grain.
We “head” our drifts a bit to make sure they grab the wood well when we drive them in. Here’s Mike heating up a length of drift with a torch.
He gets it glowing red,
and then it’s pounded with a hammer to mushroom it out just a little bit.
Here’s John driving a drift in through the port riser with Ali running the manlift just outside the boat.
Check that riser off the list.
Lastly, a particularly big item was checked off of the punch list. The rudder was installed.
Dean, Doug, and Scott handled the ground operations,
while Matt, Nick and Alex handled the operations inside the boat.
They’re using an engine hoist and a come-a-long to help lift this 2200 lb part into position.
A little gentle nudging
and some not-so-gentle nudging
and she slipped right into place.
She has one more pintle and gudgeon to be installed up at the very top where she comes through the deck.
These will be installed later, but for now, she’s held by 4 sets of pintles and gudgeons, so she’s solid.
While all this flurry of activity is swirling around the boat, a young cliff swallow took some time to hang out on SERANADE’s dock line and rest for a bit.
