Another Friday off work and my original plans were to spray some primer on the hull, wanting to get that done so I can complete the fitting out inside the hull and then fix the main deck, then get on to shaping the superstructure on the fitted deck. Amazing how the build very quickly becomes a long chain of things that can’t be done until (a) is done, but (a) can’t be done until (b) is done etc.! As this is only my second build and my first building from a plan and some brief instructions (that purposely say that the detail is left to the builder) I am finding it takes me quite a while to figure things out just for the sequence of building. But all good fun and a great learning experience!
Anyway, my only place to spray would be outside and it was just too windy here today, so I spent the day instead doing some more sanding, preparing the bilge keels better (every time I look at the hull I see bits that need a bit more smoothing - I suppose that’s what it’s like and one can never get a totally perfect finish for everything, certainly not first time!).
I then spent ages figuring out how to draw the waterline, propping the hull upside down on the table after placing marks at various points where I had taken measurements from the plan from the top of the bulwarks to the waterline. In the end I found the method of attaching a pencil to a set square and moving that around the hull did the job. I used some frog tape to mark the waterline and then took Danny Boy to the test tank (bath) to see about ballast. I split about 2kg of lead shot between bow and stern, plus placing a spare 1.7kg SLA midships to get the boat down to the waterline. I know it will be a rough guess at this stage, even adding the white metal parts will not give me a totally true position, but as the bow and stern ballast need to be placed before fitting the main deck I needed to get the boat down to something like approaching the desired waterline.
I didn’t do much else other than fit a bulkhead at the bow to contain the lead shot when I finally fit that. I then had some fun painting a paint swatch of the colours I have already bought to see which ones I will use and whether I need get any other ones.