Flipping the Forms and Releasing the Hull

After the stripping is done on the hull, it is time to flip it over. I got Robin to help and rested the now-upright hull on some foam saddles.

Since the hull is glued to the forms with hot-melt glue, I am taking this opportunity to break that glue. I could wait until the hull is complete, but is a lot easier to access the forms now. The first step is to remove the spacers between the forms so the forms are free to move. This starts by tapping out the wedges at the center form and then just lifting out the spacers.

If you noticed while watching the previous videos, I did not use much glue. On the first strip I placed one small dot on each strip, but until I got to the keel strip I used almost none. There were several occasions where I felt the strips were lifting off the forms and could use a little help staying in place so there are probably about 10 or 15 spots between the sheer and keel.

This makes it pretty easy to break the glue. A light tap with a mallet or hammer directed towards the middle of the boat will generally do the trick. Hammer towards the center or wider side of the form just keeps from driving the forms into the smaller part of the boat.

The stems can be a little harder to pop free. First the sectional forms here are secured to the end or stem form and secondly the space to fit a hammer gets tight. Finally, the keel line may get a little carpenter's glue dripping on to the stem form that needs to be de-bonded.

I first flexed the sides of the bow and stern a little to help crack some glue and then drove a chisel down between the inner stem and stem form. I was able to use this to lever up the forms just enough to crack any remaining glue.

I double checked that the forms would lift out when I get there, and then put the spacer back in and tapped home the wedges. This puts the forms right back where they are supposed to be, ready for the deck.