So I have been dreading taking the shell off for months with images of it falling in the pool, or tweaking, making me into a Wizard of Oz character. I knew if it was going to be done this year I had to do it now as its getting hotter and hotter. So I took an extra day of vacation to make a 4 day weekend into a 5 day weekend.
We prepped and lifted it on Thursday and it didn't do any of the things that I listed, but it pulled every other trick in the book on us. Lifting the shell itself was "fairly" uneventful. It is very light and where I thought I would need two people on each side to lift it.. I could have in theory walked back and forth and done it myself. It was like a feather and just floated up once we started. That gift is also the curse of it floating with every little breeze, or touch, or sneeze. I was certain if we got any real good winds it would go in the pool. But hey that would be a unique novelty too! We tied her down as good as we possible could using ratchet straps from the frame we built to the cross member of the frame.
Needless to say I didnt get much sleep that night, but it wasnt very windy so I was very happy with that.
The thing to keep in mind is that the more floor you add the less places you have to tie down the shell and I knew we were not going to get it done on Friday. Friday we got about half way done with the floors and outriggers and of course it was quite a bit windier then the day before. With half the tie downs and twice the wind, sleep was not great this night either.
We took a few hours break and then went back to work and worked till about 10:00 or so.
The next day (Saturday if your keeping track) had the back half to go and we were on a roll. We discovered that in all our infinite wisdom we would have to move the back jacks forward instead of backward to be able to place either of the pieces that remained. The meant that we had to balance the shell with handheld 2x4's while a third person put the jacks back up in the middle. My entire body was literally shaking, which did NOT help stabilize anything. Wheew, we made it through that, no time for pictures there. Now we were able to start to take her back in for a landing.
We brought the shell down nice and easy and then it just "Stopped"! I mean it just wouldn't go down, it was suspended by mere magic! It was 3-4 inches to far back and 2-3 inches above the frame. I had a plan for such a situation as I have heard of this phenomenon. I had prepared 30' ratchet straps to place all the way around the outside over bulkheads to inch her down. I had no clue what to do about the 3-4 inch forward we had to budge her, but it was late, she was safe, and we were tired. So we called it a day. I came up with all kinds of really stupid ideas on how to get her to move forward when I went in and then I decided to research it. I found information that I already had for the most part and then some obscure site said to jack up the frame. So I went back outside and that's what I did. Pop, pop, pop pop. She moved forward and all the frame fell in the C channel (for the most part).
But she was not ready to come down to rejoin her parts yet. We worked all day Sunday jacking, and pulling, and ratcheting, and scratching our heads. No matter what we did she was NOT coming down. It completely defied gravity! It was the craziest thing I had ever seen. So we basically worked all day Sunday and accomplished NOTHING!. Monday morning I went out and I had a chat with lil Miss Marilyn and explained that I have given this my all and she needed to start pulling (or dropping in this case) her own weight. Well I worked on her and little by little she started to shape up. I have her down now and I just have to button up some lose ends.
Would I do it again?
You bet!
Would I do it the same way?
Not a chance!
Ohh..
How did I get her to come down?
It was all about the jacking. No ratchet, no hammers, and no levels. I had it level when we lowered her. But brining her tongue down real low let the shell lower, which didnt make sense to me, but its true. That got me 1/2 the way there and then I just jacked opposite of what I thought everywhere and we got her done.
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