Michael's Boatbuilding Blog: Independence Day weekend in the boat shop

The long 4th of July weekend proved very productive.

I taped off the "waterline" again, and painted a third coat of Sea Foam Green on the bottom. The transition line between the green and the Whidbey White is now much cleaner. Whereas I had "rolled and tipped" the sides for a smooth finish, I simply rolled the bottom, leaving a more textured finish.

How I marked the waterline:
Although I did not try to mark and paint a "true" waterline on the Utility, I did want to avoid the notable upsweep in the bottom paint that you often see on plywood boats. That upsweep comes from following the general practice of painting 2" above the chine (the joint between the side planking and the bottom planking). Maintaining that distance above the chine for the full length of the boat tends to exaggerate the upswept curve where the chine approaches the bow.

To try to minimize this, I marked 1-1/2 inches above the chine from the transom to the forward-most frame. From there, I marked the line "downward" so that it ended on the actual seam between the side and bottom planking, at the bow. This won't leave a flat waterline, but hopefully the upsweep at the front won't be excessive.

THIS time, to avoid smudges from newspaper ink, I used plastic sheeting to cover the sides of the boat when I painted a 3rd coat on the bottom.

I made & carpeted new bunks for the trailer...

The original bunks were 38" long. These are just a little longer, at 48".

Did I mention I had epoxied the boat to the construction form?

Well, I did. So, another thing I did over the holiday weekend was to lift the boat hull up onto two concrete blocks and a 2x8 balanced on a toolbox. That provided me just enough room to crawl underneath the hull and start cutting away the construction form with a reciprocating saw. So far, I've got about half of the form cut away. It has actually been kind of fun. I've also gotten my first view of the inside of the boat.