the baseline

well this was terrifying. yesterday 6 of us stood the boat up onto it's steel baseplate. with the steel rails attached the boat weighs about 275 lbs most of which was above our heads as the boat got more vertical. add to this the point of the bow was sliding on the steel plate we were trying to stand it on. but as it often goes, it was fine. darren was scrambling around on the second floor lassoing a cargo strap around the hull and attached it to one of the 3000 lb steel tables he has all over the place.

next, an upright steel plate was welded to the baseplate. the upright plate was also bolted through the keel. if you zoom in on this picture you can just see the bolts. as we place everything, zach was instantly welding away and the whole process took less than 45 minutes.

with the baseplate added the boat is about 650 lbs. which is kind of ridiculous.

and here it is. this is so strong it is rather unbelievable. the channel steel is welded to the baseplate, the upright and the steel rails. the tip of the bow is also welded to the base. i still feel pretty worried about it overall, but now that the baseplate is on, the boat as a whole is as strong as i can make it. really the only thing left to worry about is the installation on site. this week i will clean it all up and paint it real nice.