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I have recently bought my first whaler, a 1968 currituck which I have ordered all new wood for and in a few weeks it will be a nauset with the optional rps. I can't wait! But I have a problem I want to ask you folks about. I want to bottom paint the boat as it will be sitting in lake michigan all summer. Any advice on how to do this? The painting will be the easy part, making it look correct and straight will be the hard part. Any ideas or suggestions will be greatly appreciated! Thanks
If there is not any bottom paint on the boat is should be easy. First get the boat off the trailer and on blocks.
Next using a good laser line on a tripod to mark off 1/2" - 3/4" above where the waterline falls.
Run tape (with the bottom edge of the tape hitting all your marks) to connect all the marks together. Trace the bottom then the top of the tapeline with a pencil. This will help to create a guide to go back to if you ever sand off the tape or a pencil line.
Sand the taped off areas with 80-120 grit paper to scuff up the surface area.
Clean off the sanded area and you are ready to paint. Since your hull is white I would recommend the pettit vivid color white paint if the water is clean in your harbor.
I just finsihed stripping and re painting mine. Click Here
Below is a diagram from whaler for taping off a 17 Montauk Smirked Hull. It was the later design after yours but it should get you started.
BTW where on Lake Michigan are you? I spend a lot of time in Grand Haven and Frankfort over the summer (Michigan side).
Jeff attached the following image:
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Edited by Jeff on 05/25/07 - 5:38 PM
1993 23' Walkaround Whaler Drive
If your boat has never had bottom paint on it (a 1968? wow!) you're going to need to know where the water line begins if you're going to use a laser level on it. You'll also need to chock the boat on blocks perfectly level athwartships and fore-and-aft, which can be tricky.
The low-tech way is to launch the boat with the motor and normal loading, and make your tick marks around the hull, especially at critical spots. Make the marks one inch higher than the water line all around, for the reasons Jeff mentioned. Then you can use 1 inch tape under the tick marks, and it will be right on. Obviously, you need fairly flat water. But you can get near-perfect results this way.
