March 21, 2022
Luna Mia 14
Monday
Next on the agenda was to mark, and mask, the boottop to prepare for hull painting. The original boottop had been 3″ in height, which seemed a good fit for the boat, so I planned to strike the new line at the same height above the waterline. When I marked the waterline earlier, I’d noted various references that made the initial setup this time around pretty straightforward as I set the horizontal beams up stem and stern at the new height, which I’d marked at the stem and two transom corners.
Next, I strung my string and went through the process of marking the hull on both sides before masking just below my tick marks to represent the top edge of the boottop. To prevent the stripe from any appearance of diminishing at the bow, I added just a slight sheer–and therefore a modicum of extra height–to the line by marking 1/2″ above the top edge at the stem, then retaping by eye between that new point on the stem and another point 7′ aft of the stem on each side, a point chosen by eye as the “right” point to begin the shape.
Afterwards, I covered the boottop area with masking paper to protect against overspray.
I finished up the morning by completing all the machinations required for final preparation, including touching up the sanding as needed in a few places, then vacuuming and solvent-washing again and wetting down the floor to settle any new dust.
In the afternoon, I applied three coats of flag blue gloss topcoat to the hull.
Total time billed on this job today: 7 hours
0600 Weather Observation: 35°, clear. Forecast for the day: Mostly sunny, 48°