Waterline

[brent stella]

O.K. The bottom is finally on and I'm ready to start painting. I'm going to use a anti fouling bronze. I taped off the top of the waterline where the waterline and varnish meet. I intend on painting up to that point and then staining and varnishing the topsides. Then going back and painting the 1" waterline over the anti fouling paint. so, my question is, Is this the right process, and can I use a topsides paint over a anti fouling paint?

[rbgarr]

I wouldn't put topsides paint over "bronze" bottom paint. I imagine that any cuprous oxide would bleed through at some point, if not right away, or it might not adhere well.

You might tape off the whole boot top line first and paint it last with tape on the finished varnished topsides and bottom paint.

My 2 cents.

[ 02-07-2005, 04:05 PM: Message edited by: rbgarr ]

[Ian McColgin]

Presumably you've primed the whole boat, checking the cans to be sure that you don't actually need two different primers.

I never paint bottom paint over topside or topside over bottom or either over the boot stripe, should you have one. But one can get away with going a little low on the topside paint, just a nudge, then carefully taping and a little hand sanding before you apply the bottom paint. Saves one round of taping.

It's very nice, if you're sure of your water line so perhaps this waits till next year, to scribe the water line. This you do with an itsybitsy router like 1/16" wide and shallow.

You may find as you look at your boat that it would be nice to flair the water line up at the bow and maybe a little less at the stern. Makes it actually look straight. A truely straight waterline often looks like it droops bow and stern.

G'luck

[Cullen T.M. McGough]

I'm with rbgarr,

tape out the boottop first.

Then you can send ungodly amounts of time sanding, painting, re-sanding, re-painting, filling, re-sanding, re-painting, and re-filling the topsides until you can see your face in the reflection, god damn it. (And god help you if you don't tip off if you dare to use a roller, ya savage.)

Then you can build up a few coats of boot-top.

THEN (just before you launch) paint the bottom.

Then, and only then, do one last boottop coat, hiding all your sins from man and god.

-Cullen T.M. McGough

p.s. Ian's right about the flare- a straight line will look droopy due to the perverse nature of human eyeballs. Let it run up to the bow and stern.

[Ian McColgin]

Of course, there are cheaper ($5,000 minimum fine, or is it only $2,000 ?) and more environmentally benign ways to find the water line.

[paladin]

The easiest way to mark the waterline is to put the boat in calm water next to the dock. Add all hardware, half fuel, water and stores...the weight of thos folks who will normally sail on her.....THEN......pour a quart of 10W40 motor oil in the water and the next morning your waterline will be clearly visible...

[seayou77]

I agree, the boot stripe last. A couple of coats of varnish under, and over that boot stripe will help seal this area. Same below a bit of red lead to bridge the bottom side of waterline. Don't forget to rough up the red lead before applying top coats. I got one of those laser levels that shoots a line. Less than twenty bucks no oil!

[rbgarr]

paladin-

Doesn't everyone have to stay stock still in the same place all night? Are you counting on no passing wakes? How do you get around the boat to cast off lines, etc. without making it heel and throwing the oil mark off? How do you get the boat out of the water without messing up the line?

Not to mention the pollution....

[Stiletto]

When my I did a lot of work on my boat just over a year ago, I raised the waterline and bootop by about 3" which has prevented that scumline from being so bad.

I painted the bootop( which is special bootop paint, white antifouling.) over the hull paint and have noticed that it comes off when scrubbed, when the antifoul which was painted over the proper primer doesnt.