The Home Stretch

As we move toward the end of what has been an unusually warm winter, partially making up for the last couple, I guess, I can't help anticipating that I am really getting close to rolling my hull out of the garage and turning it right side up.  It is an exciting, but scary feeling; exciting because it marks a major project milestone, and scary because I will be finally able to stand far enough away from the hull to see if my lines are fair.

I have gone almost as far as I can in cleaning epoxy bloops on the interior, and am ready to move on to the exterior.  Most of my cleanup and sanding on the exterior was actually done during planking.  I still need to clean up bloops from when I glued the deadwood, however.  I also need to apply a coat or two of epoxy to the exterior of the planks -- at least to those that do not have the anti-abrasion layer of dynel.  After that, I want to prime the hull above the waterline and apply bottom paint below the waterline.  

Ergo, I found myself in need of a waterline. 

Because my confined space precluded the use of a laser level on a tripod to mark the waterline, I had to resort to the traditional method of using a water level.  I borrowed a clear 3/8 inch i.d. hose, about 30 feet long, filled it with water, carefully forcing out the air bubbles.  Next, I marked the plan waterline on the hull at the easiest point to locate it:  the stern, measuring up from the deadwood bottom edge.  Then, with my wife's help keeping the water level in one end of the hose precisely on the waterline mark at the stern, I moved the other end of the hose around the hull and marked the hull at the level of the water in the hose every foot or so.  Finally, we connected the marks with a batten and Sharpie marker.

Waterline marked in pen using batten to connect the dots

I couldn't resist checking the line with a spirit level, because it looks so totally off, but the spirit level confirmed what I knew intellectually, albeit  not perceptually-- water does, indeed seek its own level, and if you have two reliable observers at opposite ends of a hose filled with water, and make your marks accordingly, you simply cannot go wrong.

My other boat related activity this week was finishing up the pattern for the lead keel ballast.  After gluing up the rigid foam billet, and cutting out the shape with the bandsaw, I rounded over the lower edge to a 3/4 inch radius, per the plan.  I found I could use a sharp plane for this, and I finished up with 50 grit paper on a longboard.  I also used the longboard to fair out joints in the sections of the billet, and to fine tune the shape.

Sanded, filled, and ready to go ballast pattern

 
The last two steps involved preparing for the centerboard slot.  The foundry advised that I attach a key on the bottom edge of the pattern exactly the width, length, and location of the slot.  When the pattern is set into the treated sand to make the pouring mold, the key will leave an depression in the sand at the bottom of the pouring mold.  Then, after removing my foam pattern, and before pouring, they will set a plywood pattern of the dimensions of the centerboard slot into the depression, plumb it, and pour.  Pretty clever, I think, especially for guys who have been breathing lead fumes for the past hundred years or so.

A better view of the key at the pattern bottom

Another view of the pattern showing plywood slot pattern behind

 With a bit of luck and slightly warmer weather (we have a high of 53 degrees forecast for this Saturday) I will be able to do my epoxy plank coating this weekend and proceed to priming and painting next week.