New or old water line

[model 10]

The original water line on our boat was curved. I was not the same as the sheer line but far from a straight line either. There is no trace of the original water line and the water line has gone up a couple of inches over the years also. So my question is how do you paint a curved water line? I can pull a length of tape as well as many but that only goes so far. I have the original drawings from Phillip Rhodes and I know not many can draw line like he could but is there a way to come close?

[Ocean Girl]

Link to Boot strip tips/tricks

The above link I found on wooden boat forum, talks about the formulas for creating a boot stripe and waterline.

don't know if you needed the following info or not but FYI My trick for taping a straight, long and consistent line:

after creating a pencil line, start at starboard bow, taping around the stem for good grip, walk out away from boat creating a long piece of tape about 15 feet, since your vessel is 36( waterline about 31-33?). Keep tape taunt, find the pencil line with your eyes and hold your arm locked at the level, start walking towards your beam keeping eye as the tape hits your fbg. You may have to do this a couple times, peeling off and starting again to get a feel for it. I usually have the tape roll on my left wrist like a bracelet and my right hand controlling the level and tightness of the tape. Once at beam, have someone rub the tape well with a thick soft cloth while you walk back out another 15 feet, and repeat for next half of boat.
It may sound sloppy, it may not work for you, but an old salt showed me once and it worked really well for me, saved me tons of time, and took the slight wobble out of my tape job ( happens when you tape sections rather than one big run). For the port side, since I'm right handed, I start at stern and work forward.

Hope that made sense, not very good at describing the technique.

More info you may or may not need

I use good quality fine line tape, then put a layer of blue or green 30 day tape over it, slighty higher as to not cover the fine line edge. This will protect your fine line tape from the elements, allowing you to keep the tape on longer if needed.

Hope that helps,
Erika

[Cotemar]

Put a Strait-Line Laser Level on a tri pod and run it across the hull to make your line.

Laser Level-6041100CD at The Home Depot

[model 10]

Guess you did not catch the part about, "curved".

[Cotemar]

Is water not level?

[model 10]

Thats pretty funny! If your boat stays level you don't go anywhere. Like I said Phillip Rhodes drew the water line.

[Jim Cate]

The nominal surface of the sea is level. When your boat floats in quiet water, the waterline, when viewed from the side, is straight.

I bet Phil Rhodes knew that!

Cheers,

Jim

[minaret]

Basic math. When you impose a straight line on a curved surface, you get-a curved line. The laser level works great if you make sure the boat is level both fore and aft and athwart ships. The Mark I eyeball works pretty good too.

[model 10]

Inappropriate asthetics aside, the water line has a purpose. In the case of this boat the water line moves up and down at either end as it sails or motors. If you spend enough time doing either you get stains, barnacles etc. and I feel purpose of bottom paint is to deal with that. If you painted the water line high enough I suppose that might work but it still does not look right
Again, Rhodes drew the water line with a pretty great curve. This ain't no modern hull design.

[Cotemar]

Originally Posted by Michael Samson

Inappropriate asthetics aside, the water line has a purpose. In the case of this boat the water line moves up and down at either end as it sails or motors. If you spend enough time doing either you get stains, barnacles etc. and I feel purpose of bottom paint is to deal with that. If you painted the water line high enough I suppose that might work but it still does not look right
Again, Rhodes drew the water line with a pretty great curve. This ain't no modern hull design.

We are all baffled, because most boaters just use the water level line.
It’s a no brainer. Sounds like you want to do some sort of free hand curve not following the water line.

Maybe just measure down from the toe rail to at least make it the same on both sides.

In the end its your boat and doing it your way will make you happy, then we are all happy

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Michael Samson

Inappropriate asthetics aside, the water line has a purpose. In the case of this boat the water line moves up and down at either end as it sails or motors. If you spend enough time doing either you get stains, barnacles etc. and I feel purpose of bottom paint is to deal with that. If you painted the water line high enough I suppose that might work but it still does not look right
Again, Rhodes drew the water line with a pretty great curve. This ain't no modern hull design.

Wow, you're confused. Rhodes would have been stoked to have a laser level, and would have drawn a better water line on the boat with one, though of course whoever actually built the boat did the waterline, Rhodes had nothing to do with it unless he built the boat with his own two hands. The hull design doesn't matter, a waterline is a waterline. If you insist on going low tech old school, try a bubble level. All you need is enough tubing to go around the whole boat at the waterline. It takes forever to set up and doesn't work too well, but it's how they did it in Rhodes time. What exactly is your question here anyway? Sounds like you just need to raise the waterline a bit; simple. Just do it.

[Blue Stocking]

Must be a different Phil Rhodes from the guy who designed Bluestocking.

When I painted Bluestocking I set up 2 20 ft long athwartships battens, bow and under counter, after truing up the boat, at the designed W/L.
Strung lines fore and aft across the batten tops, and by sliding them in/out, picked up points for a straight W/L.
Trammel method, I've seen it called.

[FSMike]

Contrary to apparently everyone else, I've seen curved bottom paint lines
done for the visual effect. For that matter, my tri has the bottom paint curved slightly upwards on the bows. If nothing else it helps reduce the "waterway smile" when I travel in the ditch.

[Cotemar]

Originally Posted by FSMike

Contrary to apparently everyone else, I've seen curved bottom paint lines
done for the visual effect. For that matter, my tri has the bottom paint curved slightly upwards on the bows. If nothing else it helps reduce the "waterway smile" when I travel in the ditch.

Sure some boaters do a curved up waterline. See it a lot on powerboats, because it’s easy to just tape the chine line.

I would say it’s far from the norm. On a sailboat hull with no chines it would be just a freehand line somewhere above the water line

[Blue Stocking]

Its obvious here that we are not differentiating between "waterline" and "paintline" for appearance sake. No problem.