What I'm Up To

Flippin' The Wawona

(if you know what I mean)

Today I was working out at the site where the Wawona is and spent the day working with a crane to flip the sections of the ship. Most of the wood that John will use is the outer planking which is much more well preserved then the inside planking. A lot of the inside planking is rotten or cracked but the outer planking is pretty well preserved because of the paint and care over the years. The sections of the ship are about 15x15 feet and I'll probably spend the next two weeks pulling the planking off by slowly wedging and cutting the wood dowels holding them down.

I took a time lapse today of the flipping process, which was pretty strait forward. The crane operator said each section weighed on average between 13,000 and 16,000 pounds. I'm planning on documenting the removing of the planks quite extensively over the next two weeks. This planking has been in place for over 120 years and in just a week or two it will slowly be dismantled.

Here are some photos of the outer hull planking with a hint of the red/green paint still on.