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Equinox Project | Wednesday, January 7, 2009 After cleaning up the green dust that had settled everywhere in the shop after yesterday's hull sanding, I vacuumed and solvent-washed the hull to remove the dust still clinging to the surface and allow me to continue with painting preparations. I moved the staging out of the way and, after re-checking the boat's level position, I restruck the waterline in its new position, which I eventually chose as 1-1/2" higher than the existing points at the stem and stern, which roughly equated to the top of the existing boottop's lower stripe. The new line, which I struck using my tried-and-true, highly accurate but charmingly archaic method of cross supports and horizontal strings, was planar between these two points, and, as usual, highlighted some unusual inconsistencies in the existing, molded, factory stripes, which I discovered were not only of varying height, non-planar, and non-sheered, but were also completely different from side to side and, in a word, horrid. The inconsistencies were enough to briefly give me pause during the process, but I rechecked once more the position of the boat, and its levelness in both directions, and after minimal further critical assessment determined that my planar lines were accurate, as the laws of physics dictated they had to be. One has faith in the incontrovertible accuracy of such physical displays coupled with past experience despite the confusion caused by the existing stripes. I request that any doubters trust me. |
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With the new marks made on both sides, I taped off beneath the marks, demarking the lower extent of the hull primers and paint that I'd be applying. Later, I'd raise the antifouling paint to this line, and at another stage of the painting process (following finish primer) I'd follow the same basic process and strike the new boottop above. |
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I rounded out the day's work with more varnish preparation (sanding, that is) and further coats of varnish on the applicable pieces. The main bulkheads had sufficient build coats on one side, so before applying the coat of satin varnish that would complete the process, I flipped the bulkheads and began the build process on the second side. |
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