Painting the waterline and stripe

[Pasi in Finland]

Hi,

This is propably a stupid question but I thought I’d ask anyway:

I’m about the paint the botton of the boat and the waterline is clear: i will use a laser level to trace it out. But what about the decorative stripe above it (or below now that the boat is upside down)? Is it also a projection, so i just move the laser and trace the upper and lower edge of the stripe? That will mean the width and position will vary with the angle of the hull. Or is the stripe and/or distance from waterline equal width?

I’d hate to go through the trouble of painting and then concluding I assumed wrong.

Pasi

[SMHolmans]

Hi Pasi. The width of the stripe varies with the angle of the sides and bottom of the hull, most noticeably on the bottom towards the transom. I had the same question. I used a laser level and it worked just fine. It looks great!
Steve

[Pasi in Finland]

Excellent, thanks Steve!

I read your very good blog and was coming to the same conclusion, but it looks a bit funny when viewing from the top when I taped it.

Also in many youtube videos they do boot stripes with tape, which obviously does not vary in width.

I guess there are many ways to approach this.

I’m off to my building shed and I’ll be firing my giant ”laser” ( sorry for this joke. Only some of you will get it )

Pasi

[SMHolmans]

Be careful what you do with that giant laser, Pasi. You might alarm the neighbours ...

[[email protected]]

I bought a $35 laser level from Amazon, and it worked great for marking all paint lines.
You just have to make sure the boat is level, and the laser is at the same height for each side.
Also, in case you are working in a cramped area, you only have to put the laser about 4 feet away from the boat.

Doug