water line

stevemeakin

stevemeakin

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6 Jun 2007
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Maldon, Essex
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Having spent forever trying to get a decent boot top onto my Stella and not doing a very good job of it, has anyone got a trick for putting a straight line on a clinker boat? I'm looking to do it on the slip and so laser (which I didn't find very helpful anyway) is out of the question!

Thanks in advance
 
I used a long fibre glass battern, that essentially only bent in one direction. By holding it fixed at bow and stern and then lifting the midships point to the assumed waterline, I marked it out. It worked quite nicely, but then the boat was only a 9' dinghy...
 
You need to put the laser on a tripod some distance away midships at least the length of the boat X3 set up the boat on a good area of level ground them set the laser with it's levels on the tripod at the hight you want to draw the boot top if the tripod has a rise and fall mount it is a lot easier to mark the top and bottom of your boot top and away you go repeat on the other side.
The other way is to set the boat level and the have a tube with bottle and fill with water and use that But some one else might be able to explain this better than me.
 
Not ideal, but I was stuck a while ago, set myself up as far away from the boat as poss. Sighted a batten on the points at bow and stern where I wanted the w/l to terminate, got a pal to put marks along the hull while I sighted and told him up a bit down a bit, worked out pretty good. Just keep the batten still and yer nut! (eye level).
 
If the boat is level, use a clear plastic tube as a water level. Fix the tube at the stem top up with water and set the level with the roving end. If the boat is not level find the difference bow and stern to find the slope and with careful scale drawing you can get the difference at each station. Twanging chalky string will help fill in the gaps between stations.
 
I don't see why being on a slip alters the accuracy of a laser. The boat needs to be level only in the athwartships direction (ie. standing upright).
The laser should be on a tripod with a panning head. set up the legs so that swinging the laser catches the waterline at the stern and the bow. All points in between will be correct.
The trick is to set the tripod so that the laser swings in the same plane as the boat is lying (stem to stern)
It's obvious that the boat must be upright or the waterline will be higher at one side than the other.
 
If you have a set of Stella Plans transefer the lines from the plans by just measuring along and down from the gunwale every foot or so. Then join up the marks using a sail batten. I did this for Roach, and the waterline ended up being perfect. This will work whatever orientation the boat is in.
 
A bog standard builders dumpy level will do a very good job, boat must be upright but not level stem to stern.

Make a mark fore and aft, set the dumpy level so the hairline in on the first mark, now swing the level and sight the other mark, adjust the leveling screws to line up the hairline as befor, now swing back to the firsr mark and make any adjust needed, you may have to do this a couple of times, when all is ok, mark out at 4 to 6 inch incraments, and then use a batten to join the marks.

Hope this helps

Andavagoodweekend......
 
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