Slither build in GA

[Roberta]

I used Epifanes two part polyurethane on the bottom of the Torpedo and it looks great after 7 years. It was in the water for over two weeks in Florida on the St. John's River and many long weekends over the years with no I'll effects. Very durable as it has many hours running on the water and 30k plus miles being trailered all over the country.

Roberta

[sshamilt@gmail.com]

Thanks all. I was hoping to use the same paint on the sides and bottom since I do not know where the waterline is. I guess I could call it the chine line and bottom paint to there. But that will not be realistic in the aft portion of the boat

[Bill Edmundson]

This is great stuff https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/p ... etail/2330 . It ain't cheap. But, it's been on the Tahoe since 2006.

Bill

[kens]

I went through the same dilema on my build, 2007. Bottom paints, ablative, biocide paints are for boats that live in the water. There is little said about boats that live on a trailer though. In 15 years of this forum, over time there are numerous builders that used same paint top & bottom, with no ill effects posted. I think bottom paint requirement is in the eye of the beholder, or, eye of the builder.

[sshamilt@gmail.com]

Thanks all
I have a West Marine store about 15 miles away and they are supposed to carry the petit and interlux brands. I will see what choices I have there...

[mrintense]

I would also suggest looking more on the Internet for choices. Petit and Interlux are the most common, but there are many other choices and each has it's pluses and minuses. For my boat the choice of topcoat had more to do with ease of rolling than anything else. But it was very expensive.

[sshamilt@gmail.com]

Since I don't know where the water line is, what are the thoughts on using bottom paint on the sides also? It is all planned to be white anyway

[hoodman]

The waterline should be marked on the plans. If you are going to use a true bottom paint you don't want to go up the sides with it.

[vupilot]

If you want to use the same paint on the sides as the bottom I would use a two-part epoxy paint. In my experience the trouble comes when you ask a one part paint to last in the water over a couple nights.

[sshamilt@gmail.com]

The waterline should be marked on the plans. If you are going to use a true bottom paint you don't want to go up the sides with it.

I checked the plans again. There is the setup line and no other line that I can find. My only thought would be to come up about 4 inches above chine at the transom but that would be a guess

[TomB]

The water line for my boat is called out in the instructions (referenced off the setup line). Tom

[sshamilt@gmail.com]

I find no reference to the waterline in the instructions or the plans. The setup line is the top of the floor timbers for frames1, 2, and 3. References off of the setup are for gussets and sole.
The setup line is also approximately the chine point on frames1, 2, and 3.
The"using full size plans" instructions is the only place the word waterline is used and it implies that the setup and waterline are the same.
At this point i am thinking that with lack of other references that the setup and waterline are the same line. I found a site that shows how to calculate the waterline and am reviewing that to try and confirm things.

[mrintense]

My boat plans came with a set of instructions that had tidbits of information that was not shown on the plans. They were obviously written after the plans were drawn. It's possible you might find something in there that helps.

For example nowhere on my plans did it show the center of balance but in the instructions, it stated it was some distance back from one of the frames. The details escape me at the moment, but the point is that it may be necessary to look very carefully at all the plans, the instructions, and the boatbuilding with plywood book (if you have it). All of this helps to solidify more clearly in your mind about things that need to be done.

Another good example of that is the transition joint on the side skins versus the bottom skins (on plywood boats anyway). Hard to visualize. but I found enough tidbits to figure it out.

[sshamilt@gmail.com]

Agreed. I just calculated the waterline from some information i found on the web and out comes to the setup line. It appears that for this type of boat the waterline at the keel is the chine point. Very shallow draft.

[hoodman]

The sheet plywood boats are very light compared.to modern production boats. They don't draft much.