Drilling Complete and RELIANCE is Righted

Well, on Tuesday we completed our drilling operation and RELIANCE was turned upright and returned to her cradle in front of our workbench. We didn’t take too many pictures because we were busy making sure the rods and blocks were properly aligned and then the up-righting was quite a delicate hoist.

We locked and aligned the rods and blocks in place, both at the top and bottom. At the bottom, we ensured the blocks were parallel to the waterline and to each other. Wedges kept the right distance from the keel and then a 2″ x 6″ plank was fastened to the block bottoms. At the top of the keel, we wrapped the rods with tough rubber wrapping which was clamped with radiator hoses to keep the assembly from slipping down. All this is temporary until we are ready to put RELIANCE on her display cradle – when everything is completed on deck.

1. Rods inserted aligned and braced

2. Ooops, a little adjustment

3. Rods locked in place

Then easy-as-can-be, RELIANCE was righted and placed in her working cradle.

4. Lifting straps in place. Keel on dolly to swing underneath

5. Hoisting away

6. Settling her on an even keel

7. What is Capt. Trivia doing up there

So, now RELIANCE is back at our workbench. Our next steps are to build thwartship braces with donuts to brace the tops of the rods. After that we’ll install the mast step assembly shown a few days ago. We’ll also install blocks and cleats below deck to handle below-deck halyards and sheets. We’ll access these through a hatch when all is done. Finally, we have to sort through all the on-deck fittings and determine our fastening strategies for each. When all this is done, we’ll button her up and proceed with deck activities.