I am painting a new boot stripe on my Islander 32, any restrictions on how big it should be? I was thinking four inches, is there a rule of thumb for this sort of thing? Any insight into this would be much appreciated.
New boot stripe?
- Thread starter Captn Scotty
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The width of the stripe will change as you move fore / aft on the boat due to the curvature / angle of the side of the hull. This maintains the stripe as appearing to be the same width from a distance away. Our stripe is 3.5" wide at the beam where the side of the boat is nearly vertical and nearly 10" wide at the stern where the hull has significant curvature. Last time we painted ours I used a laser level at night setup on a ladder away from the boat to shoot a horizontal line the full length of the boat. Knowing where the waterline is at a few points along the way allows you to measure up however far vertically you want the bottom of the stripe. The laser is then used to connect the dots. Tape the bottom of the stripe following the laser, then move the laser up however wide you want the stripe and tape the top edge again following the laser line. It worked really well. Hope this helps
Thank's Eric. I have a laser level, and will set it up and give it a go. I have an existing bottom paint line, do I still need to use the laser level?
New boot stripe
Eric got it right. Level your boat bow to stern before you begin. If you have a waterline stain on your bottom paint, thats a great place to start. Reference that stain when you are leveling the boat. If the edge of your bottom paint is an equal distance from the bottom of your boot stripe, you will only need to level the top of your boot stripe unless there is a large separation between the two. If you didn't have a laser level, you could use a water level, a hose filled with water with a clear plastic tube at each end of the hose.
Eric got it right. Level your boat bow to stern before you begin. If you have a waterline stain on your bottom paint, thats a great place to start. Reference that stain when you are leveling the boat. If the edge of your bottom paint is an equal distance from the bottom of your boot stripe, you will only need to level the top of your boot stripe unless there is a large separation between the two. If you didn't have a laser level, you could use a water level, a hose filled with water with a clear plastic tube at each end of the hose.
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