With the hull still upside down, it’s a very convenient time to do some painting and varnishing because access is so good. I decided I’d get several coats of bottom and topsides paint applied, and build up a good varnished finish on Justine‘s transom before bringing her out of the barn and turning her over.
Marking the waterline was the first step. The load waterline is a key feature in the table of offsets and in the construction plan that were part of the Flatfish plans set I purchased. But the main reference line on the plans for construction purposes is designated as the “construction baseline.” The butts of the construction molds are all cut at this line, and it is effectively the plane of the building floor.
For some good reason, I’m sure, the Flatfish plans do not have the waterline parallel to the construction baseline, so you have to do some interpolation to lay out the position of the waterline on the hull when it is still on the construction molds. I marked the locations on the stem and transom where those parts intersect the waterline, then measured the height of both points above the construction baseline. (My laser level was very useful for this: I set the height of the laser at the mark on the stem, and had the laser scan a horizontal line. Then I had a reference line from which to take measurements 0n other points on the hull.) I measured the horizontal distance from the stem and transom points, then I divided that distance into suitable intervals (about 10). Then I calculated what the waterline height should be at each of the intermediate points, knowing that the waterline on the hull must lie in a plane. This enabled me to mark about 10 points on the hull that the waterline would have to intersect. (Again, the laser level made marking the lines pretty easy.)
Once I had marked a series of points on the hull for the waterline, I lightly tacked a batten onto the hull to connect the points in a fair curve. With the batten in place, I used a saw to lightly score the position of the waterline on the hull planking, removed the batten, and was ready to apply masking tape to the line and apply some bottom paint.
I used Petit water-based bottom paint and applied several coats. I didn’t apply bottom paint to parts of the keel plank to which the ballast keel, deadwood, and forward fairing piece would eventually attach. These already had been given a good coat of red lead, and eventually they would be covered with these other pieces of the boat and those joints bedded.
For topsides paint I used Kirby Paint’s color “Green Tint.” I applied it according to the directions on the can and it took three coats to do a good job of evenly covering the underlying planks and seam compound. I expected to apply at least one more coat once the boat was much closer to launching.
I also wanted to get a really nice varnish finish on all of Justine’s brightwork, so the outside surface of the transom was where I started. I closely followed the Rebecca Wittman’s excellent articles on “The Art of Brightwork”, Part II, Sanding—True Grit, WoodenBoat Vol. 82, p. 88; and Part III—A Professional’s Approach to Finish Application, WoodenBoat Vol. 83, p. 66. For mahogany, this involves applying several coats of an oil mixture, followed by a minimum of eight coats of varnish. While it’s a long process, it’s not bad if you are in the midst of doing lots of other tasks and have the time to spread the work out over several weeks. And the results are fabulous!
Finally, I purchased a book of gold leaf and some sizing for it, and applied gold leaf to the carved “Justine” on the transom. I read a few articles on how to do this before starting, and I used gold leaf that had paper backing to make the transfer onto the carved surfaces easier than the technique in which the leaf is transferred with a brush. Once the gold leaf was on, I applied one thin coat of varnish over it.
I was done with about everything that could be done before turning over the hull. That’s the subject of my next post!