Marking Your Waterline...

[Marty Loken (Norseboater)]

Sometimes, when we have enough room around the perimeter of a project boat, we use a laser level on tripod to mark the waterline before painting the bottom. But most of the time, the shop is a crowded mess of stationary tools, lumber, other boats, workbenches and general clutter...meaning there isn't enough open space to set up the laser and sight along the hull.

The solution is to block the hull up so the intended waterline is parallel to the concrete floor, then clamp scrap lumber along with a carpenter's pencil or Sharpie pen onto a rolling office chair and simply make the rounds...marking the waterline as you roll the chair around the perimeter. (Obviously, you have to be careful not to dislodge the clamped-on marking tool...and it's best if you keep the chair oriented perpendicular to the hull, but if you've got non-wobbly casters on the chair and a level floor, the method works well, and quickly.)

In the case of the Skagit 20 being marked in the photos, we just determined where the waterline needed to be at the bow and transom, then leveled the hull all-around and set the marker 28 inches above the floor.

Not rocket science...

- Marty

[GregJ]

Thanks for the tip Marty. Tips from the Island Boat Shop are always more then welcome. Keep them coming.

[Helmar]

Hey Ole.

Before Lasers and chairs with pencils you used to just Eye ball them. They were right on too.VeryBigSmile

[Karl]

I've often wondered, what part of the boat do you base you level off of? The keel, the floor???

[Marty Loken (Norseboater)]

Waterlines

Karl -

I'll try to offer a better answer later (gotta run right now), but for most of our lightweight, relatively flat-bottomed planing hulls, the waterline ends up parallel to the keel...assuming that the keel is parallel to the bottom of the hull at its centerline. Some floors are also parallel to the bottom; some are intentionally sloped down toward the stern to be sure they drain well.

- Marty

[Sammamish1]

Damn, I thought you put it in the water and marked it.

[Marty Loken (Norseboater)]

Watermarks

Jack -

You can put boats in the water and mark where the line wants to be at the transom and bow, but you don't dare use the waterline along each side as a guide, since boats rarely float exactly level, side-to-side.

A lot of times we need to paint the bottom and waterline before the boat is ready to be test-floated. In the case of the Skagit 20, the new motor won't be installed until we're completely done with the project--and it'll happen in central Washington at a dealership--so we had to guess at the waterline without the benefit of a float test.

Waterlines on our relatively small outboard boats are a crapshoot anyway. The painted lines might be parallel to the water when the boat's at rest with nobody aboard...but the minute you start packing people and gear aboard everything changes anyway, and almost every stern waterline gets submerged until you're running at speed. (And if you paint the waterline to match hull trim when the boat's fully loaded, it looks silly when empty...with way too much bottom paint exposed in the stern.)

Fortunately, I guess, most of the trailer boats in NWCBC don't have bottom paint in the first place, so many folks don't need to worry about it.

- Marty

[Skagitguy]

Marty, I myself like a little accent strip on the waterline area even if you can't see it when in the water. On the Skagit as you know, it's is black on the bottom and dark blue on the hull with gold stripes which took a few trys. When it's on the trailer that is about the only time you can see it......and personally i enjoy doing it and i think it gives it a finishing touch. Saratoga will have one too. First picture is a example of not being able to see anything anyway.....Zoom ! Best, Chuck

[skagit 25]

I think that is the first picture of Bainbridge I have seen chuck. You did a real nice job with her, as always.

[Skagitguy]

Thanks Robert, but this time around i can't take the credit of the hard work that had been done when Bruce Drake (i think you and Bruce went out in it on the Columbia river when it was light blue ? ) in PDX own it. Marty did the structural work like the transom,foam and the floor itself,bench seat in the stern etc for Bruce. What i did was stain the bench seat a little darker to match the cabin door area trim,painted the cabin,carpeted the interior of the cabin and cockpit, change windshield a little,and the repainting to a darker blue and white combo and some hardware. The lighter blue was nice as well, but i seem to like the darker shade a little more. So she has a little bit of the other Skagit idea's i had and along with a little bit of the Farallon as well. I think she is a keeper for sure. knock knock. See my Ford ? When i went to buy it i told my car friend that it had to be dark blue to match the Farallon at the time and later the G-3 that was white and i made the stripe down the center deck dark blue. My Jeep was burgundy to match the Rosario before that. It's a little hangup i had in life i guess.That's all over now as the Dorsett Saratoga will be completely another color that will not match anything i have had before...i think. Lol ! Best,Chuck

[McSkagit Tim Jones]

Marking the water line

Marking the water line is always a bit tricky, especially for a boat that has never been in the water or in my case hasn't been in the water in decades.

The waterline on the Saratogan was scribbed into the gelcoat. I removed probably half of the 1/8" thick gelcoat, so I had to mark the water line in a few places.
I figured the engines added a thousand pounds to the boat, then there is the electric drive system (150 pounds) and the battery bank to drive it (600 pounds), so the boat gained close to a ton.

I raised the waterline an inch and a quarter. I used boat builder John Guzzwell's technique for marking the water line..embedding a cotton string in epoxy resin. Makes an external raised waterline that's easy to paint or mask to.

In hindsight, I should have raised the waterline 2 inches. The boat is over-weight and so I'm constantly moving fuel or water to trim the boat. I have this thing about trim!!

Full fuel (200 gallons, or 1400 pounds), full water (70 gallons or 600 pounds) and six passengers (1000 pounds) and the water line is and inch below the water! So is the swim step! Lesson learned. So I waste a lot of time trying to figure out what I can remove from the boat to shed some weight. I've gone to just using the reserve fiberglass saddle fuel tanks, leaving the mains with only a few reserve gallons. Keeps weight out of the stern. Still have a lot of tools aboard.

There is also a method using a garden hose and a short length of clear PVC hose and water which always seeks its own level. Haven't tried that water line marking method, yet.

Marty's method using the office chair seems good, except in my shop the floor isn't level or even....

McSkagit

[Tim_Mattson]

2`` Rule

I like Tim`s method of the string.
When painting hulls ,I watch for the highest waterline marks at the transom and then go ~1-2`` above that.Side to side will change quicker than front to back so adding a bit will keep you from dipping your side paint under.
Try putting a Boot stripe on a distorted ,Welded 26` hull and you`ll soon realize the eye will think it`s crooked from some angles.....so you stretch the guide tape tight the first 8` of the side.Then doing the curved transition from the widest part of hull is a matter of doing both sides ,then picking which side "looks" right and then matching them up so the are mirrored and match the waterline.
Slightly raising the bow area will keep the waterline from dipping in non-calm water.
The office chair is one of my favorite striping aids,usually with my body making for the pen holder,though Blu tape is usually how I mark it out.I too have a floor that isn`t at all flat.
As 4 strokes weighted down the new hulls I used to stripe parallel to the actual bottom,I had to raise the tape line so it was higher by 1.5-2.5 inches over the first 8` from transom corners.
The worst thing is when they look perfect when on trailer ,but wrong when in the water or real world as they say.......
TimMattson

[Robby321]

I have a Harbor Freight Laser bubble level. It would work just fine for this. Mine has a cap for when on, a 90 degree line, or cap off of a laser point. Link

http://www.saferwholesale.com/HDC-16...FQR5hwodQRUiag

[Skagit Hideaway]

The painted waterline on this Skagit 20 is a 2" wide, blue stripe. At the stern, the bottom of the stripe is 5" above the chine, or 13" below the transom cut-out. Does that sound about right with a ca. 300lb motor/normal loading?

[Helmar]

The painted waterline on this Skagit 20 is a 2" wide, blue stripe. At the stern, the bottom of the stripe is 5" above the chine, or 13" below the transom cut-out. Does that sound about right with a ca. 300lb motor/normal loading?

Personally, I can only get close. ..
Here is a picture of my 59 with a I/O in it.
I am down in Veneta (west of Eugene) and the boat is being stored up in Sandy.