Painting Plan, Rumination

Posted by Monterey Matt on Jul 20, 2005

Howdy,

having more or less completed construction (yay! -- I'm not counting the rudder, which I'm going to install after finishing everything else and taking the yak out on calm waters), I'm bracing myself up for varnish and paint on Umunum, my Ches. 18.

My original plan was to go with the classic white bottom, white 1" rim, and leave the top "woody" and varnished. The order I had planned was to varnish the top, paint the bottom, then paint the 1" border.

However, I was recently peripherally involved with a rescue (I'm a part-time Coastie) in waters here with a kayak, which had a white bottom and was capsized (to get to the end of the story, btw, the kayaker was rescued). The white bottom was incredibly hard to spot because of the whitecaps and foam and so forth. The kayaker was spotted well before the kayak was, and she was wearing a black wetsuit!

I have a fresh can of fire red interlux on hand (originally intended for my 50-year-old wooden sail boat, which sadly appears to be headed for the wreckers' yard, as it were), and I'm thinking for a hull bottom it might be a better "safety" color for Pacific Ocean waters.

So I'm thinking now about the following paint plan:

Red "bottom".

Traditional black 1/2" boot line.

White "uppers" and 1" rim.

Varnish on the top. (I know red would be 'safer' but I just gotta show off the wood someplace.)

This is a little more ambitious, and from experience on traditional boats I know getting a straight, good-looking, appopriately-positioned boot top is a trick.

I'm looking for a reality check from other builders on this plan, and maybe some pictures/advice about the approximate position for a boot.

I browsed through the Ches. galleries, couldn't find an example there of something that looked like what I'm thinking about. Pictures...?

- Matt

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