… and action!
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Smooth operator…well done!
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That is totally insane to watch and it took you no effect what so ever to flip it completely over. 
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Okay, did anyone else hold their breath during that video? Cause when that thing was on its side both times, i had to look away . . .
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That boat looks sick! Incredible workmanship and effort there. It’s going to be really something to go fishing on it when it’s all done. Super impressive.
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Almost as if it were counter balanced…
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@ smackdaddy53 That’s exactly what I thought because it moves so smoothly. But I see the build and no counter weights at all. Just so damn good engineering there. Very impressive.
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Did you build that apparatus with ball bearings?
If so, I bet they were ceramic ball bearings too or at least stainless. Lol. Nice set up.
Just think how much faster your second third fourth and 10th one will go now that you have all the rigging/ tooling figured out
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I appreciate the kind words, guys. As Mac hinted, the hull is counterbalanced by the beam. The location of the beam/hull assembly is adjusted to align the center of gravity with the center of rotation. On paper, I can get within a quarter inch of perfect.
Once it is “close enough” the assembly will stay put. When I first turn the hull on its side you can see me step away, no holding.
There are no bearings, just pipe on pipe at the ends. I can clamp the ends down to increase the holding force as desired.
I certainly held my breath the first time I rolled it!
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Those pics are so cool.
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Damn that thing is sexy!!
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All the home builds in core / glass are impressive, but this build shows a whole other level of intensity in planning, skill development, and execution. From learning the skills welding aluminum, material layout, tooling to build it straight, the rotisserie, all of it. Wonder how much a boat built in aluminum like this would cost if it was even available on the market? Prolly like a Chittum?
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I can’t add anything that hasn’t been said above. Looks fantastic!
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Cape Fear boatbuilders is licensed to build em. Have orders a year out.
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A couple of my vertical keel bar tacks failed at some point, allowing the hull panels to lift off the transverse frames. The fix involved a dog and wedge that let me push down on the transverse frames to pry the panels upwards. Supplemented that with some pressure from a hydraulic jack underneath, then tacked the keel bar back where it belongs.
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I imagine some of those panels have some serious trapped forces. Good save!
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side quest and food for thought.
So i have an aluminum airboat. Because of where we run these, the bottoms take a fair amount of punishment. One of the typical solutions for airboaters is to use an epoxy bottom coating. There are several, but a common one is Fasco steel flex/superslick 2000. I’m going to redo the bottom of my boat soon because the water level was low and rocks hurt. The thing I’m going to do differently from others is laminate a single layer of 180 gr Basalt cloth into the epoxy, hoping that this will help with abrasion resistance, impact resistance, and sort of act like ripstop fabric, preventing the epoxy from chipping and shearing off.. I could also mix in aluminum powder and or graphite, but the Superslick already has some additives in it. Just putting it out there in case you are still thinking about a bottom coating. If all goes well, I should have this complete in September. The steel flex is a bit of a thicker epoxy, so I have concerns with wetting it up the basalt, but we will see how it goes.
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I’ve seen airboats cross asphalt parking lots. Looked like hdpe sheet on the bottom?
I used my LT25 on the nature coast for years. The only gel coat damage was right under the bow, from pulling it ashore on limestone. So wear and tear aren’t aren’t on my list of worries for this hull.
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