I want my boat to look like this (boot top question)

As the boot line is out of the water when the boat is at rest, the boot line doesn't need antifouling. I did our boat's boot line in antifouling (Hempel Boottop, in blue, on a white hull) for the first few years we had the boat, and it kept rubbing off on the dinghy, when it was tied up along side. Scraped off and replaced with normal paint, and a) there hasn't been any growth on it, b) it doesn't rub off onto the dinghy and c) I don't need to redo it every year, like I did with the anitfouling. Therefore I'd recommend normal paint, although I suspect you'll need a few coats of white to cover the blue hull......
 
I used cove line tape designed for the job. Apart from an over enthusiastic crane crew at Emsworth it has survived very well and looks as good as new, including the small patch I fixed it with. It was also a heck of a lot easier than painting and provides a wipe clean surface when antifouling as well as a surface which allows easy removal of masking tape.
 
Our boot-top is enamel gloss paint. The A/F comes just above the loaded waterline. It is quite an easy job to go round, either from a pontoon or dinghy, and wipe the grime off.
 
Kelpie said:
Once day, when all the other jobs are done, my boat will look something like this:

http://www.devalk.nl/images/thumbnails/website/41656_1e.jpg

I fancy adding a white boot-top, like in the photo, to break up the rather bulky topsides. May even do it this year when antifouling.
What do the panel suggest:
- Micron or similar hard AF?
- Normal topsides paint?
- Vinyl tape?

Ta
Click to expand...

Normal topsides paint (car paint). This is how I "refreshed" my boat's boot line (mine was refreshed but no difference if it was a new line). Use roll and tip method which is an extremely easy method with very good results and you will be fine.
 
I've got white GRP line and near the stern it regularly got a bit green by the end of the season. Thinking to beat the weed I painted just that bit with hard white antifoul. Guess which bit got green growth on it?

Antifoul doesn't.
 
I'm leaning towards tape/vinyl (insert music joke here).
Sounds like it could make masking easier, so less work rather than more.
Just need to ensure that the tape is comfortably out of the water, by the sounds of it.
The price of the stuff varies widely- any suggestions?
 
Kelpie said:
Just need to ensure that the tape is comfortably out of the water, by the sounds of it.
The price of the stuff varies widely- any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Agree, keep it out of the water and use a decent make like 3M and you should be ok. Well at least that's my theory and I'm sticking to it!
 
In my view the boot top idea of something scrubbable in the water is not a good plan. I preferred antifoul up as high as the weed would go, and then, what is almost decorative only, in gloss paint above that.

This is what we did.

1ad5ea85e00d44dccdcde3bea812af5e.jpg
 
You can't really use tape. As the boot top tucks in under the stern, it should be about twice as wide as it is at the point of max beam. When viewed from the side, it will look thinner, and all wonky...
 
Iain C said:
As the boot top tucks in under the stern, it should be about twice as wide as it is at the point of max beam.
Click to expand...

+1

The first reply that understands how a boot top should be painted. It should have a contant vertical height all round, so the actual width of the stripe on the hull varies according to the angle the hull makes with the vertical. For the trigonometrically minded, the width will be h/cosA where h is the vertical height chosen and A is the inclination of the hull surface from vertical.

Marking out and painting in a boot top was a standard test for the paint shop part of a boat builders apprenticeship, and no mean task - even more tricky if clinker built.

Peter.


Peter
 
Peter Wright is right.
The marking of a boot top makes a big difference to the look of the boat.
In the picture on post 13 , you can clearly see the rise from midships fwd to thicken the line.
How much you give it relies on the rise in the sheer and also flare of the boat.
Its not an exact science.
Very often it was taken off the drawing board.
Most difficult I have ever done probably Fairways Fisher 37
The lines were scribed onto the plug, which was upside down. Polished and Black so they would come out on every boat out of the mould
Its got a funny little sternpost reverse curve that was a nightmare to get right.
Some boats look better done than others.
But one thing is for sure, you will never get it to look right with a standard roll of vinyl.
 
When I done mine, on my first ever boat last year, I was advised to use gloss paint, I painted the top sides in Toplac and the boot line, boats been in the water 6 months and is still clean.
 
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