Turning Hull Over

Turning over a hull is always a great event at every boat yard, but always an anxious time as well. So many things can go wrong and in a split second, if something does go wrong, will destroy the hull.

Things that can go wrong are slings that can break or slip. The crane can snap a cable or even topple over. When one lifts larger boat, the worries get bigger with two cranes to be used. When a hull gets turned over, it will do a 180 degree turn without touching Terra Firma once.

CRADLE:

Before a turning over of hull begins, one has to fabricate a cradle to rest the hull onto. This type of method I personally dislike as it is very difficult to get a large boat to sit perfectly level onto it.

I usually built a cradle on the hull and make sure the base is level all around. The hull saddles get tacked welded to the hull so that the cradle cannot move in the turning process.
When the hull is turned it is very easy to level up the base of the cradle - and the hull would be perfectly aligned again for deck plating and fitting out.

SOME MEMORABLE HULL TURNOVERS:

THE BIG ONE: The start of the turnover of the DIX 65. Take note of the cradle that is attached to the hull as describe above. Two cranes are used for a successful flip without any drama and grey hair!

Dark haired person on the left is Dudley Dix

and over she goes

and over....

nearly there.... and Tony is watching the proceedings

DONE!

In this photo the strong back is removed and it clearly shows the frames head stocks used to set up the frames as discussed elsewhere. Also clearly visible is the clearance of the hull plating from the frames and that is the main reason for having such a fair hull after the welding was done. No "hungry horse" looks here!
Also noticeable is where the frames are welded solid to the hull plating in high load areas like for instance at the rudder and keel areas.

This photo also shows a very smooth transition of curve at the chine and can easily be mistaken for a proper round bilge hull.
In fact, this is a constant radius chine design as are the DIX57 & DIX 38 I had built.

Congratulations to Dudley Dix for a job well done and may I be so bold to say that in the world of steel radius chine designs, he has no peers.

And now the DIX 57 turn

Eugene, the boilermaker

What a pair! The DIX 65 and DIX 57 with a DIX 38 in the background

Much younger Dudley Dix - 1991

and if you have no cranes available, you do it the hard way with chain blocks and muscle

DIX 38 - this is perhaps the only frameless radius chine around. It was built on a former and the photo below clearly shows the hull coming of it and only the longitudinal stringers are attached to the hull. This was an extremely fair hull.