1946 Chris Craft Brightside U22: How to Flip

I just checked. Our first video, the 1946 Chris-Craft brightside U22, arriving from Canada, is dated May 23, 2016. We flipped her about a month later, which tells me we’ve had her upside down for over a year!

That fact makes today’s milestone particularly sweet for us, and even more for her owner! As you can see in the clip, we use a winch and length of soft line that wraps around the hull and is secured to a bilge stringer, to control the rate at which she turns. She represents a huge mass, one that will have lots of momentum should it begin rolling uncontrollably.

To our surprise, however, she behaved herself while RJ and I rolled her almost effortlessly.

The real challenge is keeping her upright and stable once she has flipped. Her widest and heaviest components are now above the straps, and they really, really want to roll through 90 degrees.

Didn’t happen though, and she’s now happily resting on a pair of boat dollies as we begin stripping “everything else” at and above the gunwales.