2252Hrs – On The Waterline

After a two week layoff due to the necessity of doing some paid work followed by some family time I was pleased to get back to Gleda today and get cracking again. Realistically I’ll only have this week before the Christmas holidays again take me away but after that I’ll be going hammer and tongs.

I’ve made a commitment to myself to put Gleda right at the top of my priorities for the next 5 months. Last week I passed the six year mark and I am now on the home stretch. I’m ready to finish, I’m ready to go sailing and I’m ready to do whatever it takes to make it happen.

My plan today was to take stock, study the plans, draw up a next action list and generally get ready to start work again. My first priority was to move my recently delivered Tohatsu outboards into drier storage where they would be safe for the next few months. Once that was done I had a cup of coffee and whilst looking at the hulls I decided I wanted to get something more constructive done so I pulled out my long neglected water level and set to marking the waterlines on the hulls.

I mentioned a while back that I’d considered simply painting to the hull chines as Jacques has done on ‘Pilgrim’ but having studied a few photos of Tiki 38’s over the past weeks I’d decided  that actually I prefer the appearance of a proper waterline colour change.

To be honest I was expecting the job to be harder than it turned out to be, From the plans it was possible to get a measurement for the position of the waterline on the stem and stern and I was able to double check I’d got them right by then measuring the waterline length between the two, 9.6m (31.5 ft). As a final check I was able to measure the quoted maximum draft of 0.75m (2.5ft) After that I simply set up the water level and moved slowly down each side of the hulls marking periodically as I went. After that I ran down with the masking tape, pulling it tight as I went.

Now I’m not going to sit here and say it’s a perfect  job but it’s not far off, and even if some adjustment is needed once she’s afloat at least I’ll have something to work from.

After a light rub down I rolled on a coat of Jotun Vinyguard Silvergrey vinyl primer. This paint acts as a tie coat prior to applying the antifouling. I’ll apply another coat of Vinyguard follwed by the antifouling once Gleda has been transported to the coast and is nearer to launch.