February 20, 2025

Danusia Phase 2-34

Thursday

I began the day at the controls of my sander, and sanded the hull with 320 grit to abrade the fresh primer and prepare it for the next steps.    Afterwards, I blew down the shop and plastic covering the decks to remove dust, then vacuumed and solvent-washed the hull.

Next, I needed to establish and strike the boottop, so I set up my two horizontal end beams once more, this time at a height 2-1/2″ above the waterline mark–the desired visual height of the boottop, which happened to match that which had been on the boat upon arrival.  At the stern, I first set the beam back up at waterline height, since I had no other means of determining the new boottop height and, with the beam at that level, used a steel rule positioned perpendicular to the beam to make a tick mark at the appropriate place on the centerline of the counter, 2-1/2″ above the previously-struck waterline.  Then, I raised the beam and leveled it at the new mark.  The angle of the counter was such that there was no easier or necessarily better way to establish the new mark.

At the bow, the stem angle was steeper and therefore it was easy enough to use a small square set to 2-1/2″ to make a new tick mark on the stem at the appropriate height, where I could then set up the level beam in one operation.

Now I strung a tensioned string between the beams, just tangent to and touching the hull at the maximum beam roughly amidships, and, taping it to the hull, slowly pulled the string closer to centerline at the stern bit by bit, marking the hull at each tape location, till I reached the centerline, giving me a series of tick marks from which I could tape the line.  I repeated the process on the port bow, then moved the string to the starboard side and completed the marking there just before the end of the day.  This put a crick in my neck since the boat’s waterline was above my head, and the string level at the top of the boottop was just about at my maximum reach.

Next time, I’d mask off the new line and continue with other preparations.

Total time billed on this job today: 7 hours