The Boat Shop

Ed & Valkyrie

Hopefully this will be the last picture of Valkyrie upside down for a long time to come.

Today was the day for the great turning over party.  While weight was carefully watched and materials selected with methods used limiting the addition of needless balast, it was still no easy task to just flip Valkyrie upright.

We strapped Valkyrie to the strongback, putting soft cloths between the webbing and the paint and employed a cable come-along attached to the ceiling above for the grunt-work.

A rare picture of Travis, who is usually behind the camera

There was but one mishap during the course of turning Valkyrie over, one of the planks we added to the station molds to increase the depth of the boat sheared a screw and made an absurdly loud crunching noise that paused work for a few moments until we found out exactly what had transpired.

Halfway point

Every now and then, it becomes time for a silly break.  One can’t be too serious when boat building.

I GOT IT I GOT IT

After laying down some additional sheets of cardboard to protect the keel and using some bags of stove pellets as shims we righted Valkyrie to working condition.

Easy as she goes

Resting on an even keel

Work platform might be a little high...

What looked like a pretty good sized work skiff quickly became something much more once the strongback and stations were removed.

Boatload of smiles

The console was dropped into Valkyrie and shimmed up, using some cinderblocks to get an approximate height.  Work platforms were discussed as well as foredeck configurations.

Proper placement is key

Now, please keep in mind that not every boat celebration has to have this be a part of it, but with Valkyrie something was desired.

Somewhere in the history of the sea, sailors begain to celebrate with spirits, I surmise that it started when someone finished off a bottle, corked it and tossed it in the nearby water.  The beverage of choice for this event was Grog.  Perhaps Mead would have been a better choice, given the Norse heritage of Valkyrie but it was not to be.  For this Grog a bottle of Pusser’s Rum was obtained with 2 oz poured into glasses, to this dark cane sugar was added along with fresh lime juice (to prevent scurvy) and 2 oz of sodawater.  Yar.  For Grog-lite, hold the rum.

One ration of Grog for the crew

The floggings will continue until morale improves.

Reading: Turning over a new leaf