Dave I did a similar thing on a ch 16  I use a strip of wood the thickness of the stripe held against the hull to mark a line then taped up to the line. My stipe was about 2" but it would work with any thickness.

    andy

Hi Dave,

 The way we do it is just by hand. Put down your fineline tape at the position you want to start from, than you start unrolling the tape (under a little tension) untill you have enough lenght to cover the first 1,5-2 meters, than you start to move the tape slowly towards the surface while keeping your eye in line with tape and just put it down. Your eyes are the best tool for this, especially if you want the line to follow the curves of the boat (my opinion is that you should ad it will be in perfect harmonie with the design of your boat, but thats just my opinion..) After you put down the fineline tape you put down the (50%) overlapping masking tape. Now you need to do the spacing trick twice! And remember dont leave the tape on there for days as you will be very sorry! :)

Also I advise to take off the tape while the paint is still wet, in this way you wil allow the paint to "stretch' itself not only on the flat surface but also along the edges, resulting in a smooth finish (no sharp edges wich will break off, or even worse you will be left with damaged egdes if you remove the tape after the paint has cured.

Goodluck, Alexander Supertramp

Hi Andy and Alex

Thankyou for your ideas.  I have taken note and will get to it withing the next few days.

Dave

KNYSNA, Western Cape, South Africa

question: have you thought about using pinstripping instead of paint?  way easier to apply, easy to change should the need/desire arise and it has an absolutely consistent thickness.  that is how I would approach this. 

I painted a 1/4" white stripe on my Wood Duck 10 between the varnished side and dark green bottom  I learned this trick from building ship models.

Tape above where you want your stripe with the bottom of the tape being where the top of your stripe will be  Then put a 1/2" automotive masking tape along that line.  Then a third strip of tape just at the bottom of your 1/2" strip.  When you are done, carefully peel away the center (1/2" strip) and paint the gap.  If properly taped, you should end up with a perfect 1/2" red stripe.

Rich

Bravo,  Great solution.

Thanks for the compliment Ed.  I just hope DaveR saw my post because this technique really works well.

Rich

I'm also thinking about painting a stripe on my varnished hull.  Any recommendations for what type of paint to use?  Also, do I need to sand the varnish first?  Thanks.

 Howard

Howard,

I used Interlux "Brightside."  It is a polyurethane paint.  After taping, and removing the center piece (see my earlier post), I would ligfhtly sand (maybe 400 paper), before painting.

Rich