Flipping Out

This was perhaps the most exciting step so far in the whole process. It didn't involve any real work, just disassembly, and moving the hull off the frame. For the first time we got to see the hull right side up, and yes, it really looks like a real boat. Like it could float us as far north as we might like to go.



Here we are unscrewing the boat from the building frame.



The boat is very light now, without any of the decks, thwarts etc that we'll add later on. Holding it like this takes very little effort at all. This will serve us well when we're hauling it up and down the beach.





Though all the imperfections are clear to the builders it looks good at a glance, and perfectionism was never our intention. Every step that we've put our effort into, however unskilled or hesitant, adds a layer of unique beauty that's specifically tuned to our own (sentimental) eyes.



There's still a lot of work to do, and flipping the boat was a little premature because the hull still needs to be cleaned up. Premature, but oh so necessary. We needed to see this thing stand alone. Now we can call it a boat, and it really is. It's a boat, sitting on its old building frame.