...Referring to 306Originally Posted by Bill
This Tim Lackey method of transferring a dead straight line to a boat is perfect for tight confines as is evident here. The tent provided the uprights for clamping the horizontal reference planks. ( a kind of engineered pine - made-up of pieces and strips glued together and primed flat beige. S3S, KD and very stable. Good pattern wood )
Tim's system would like a wider foot print to be able to move the string further out to touch more stops on the mid part of the hull for ease of marking.
Putting a straight line on the hull requires that the boat is dead level port and starboard. Not necessary for the fore and aft. So, the approximately 12' long 1" thick and 6" wide boards were clamped dead level like the boat onto tent poles at the required boat waterline, front and back.
Took measurements off our original plans and then onto the boat with story sticks. Made up yellow nylon string with gallon weights at each end and draped them over the boards, a set on each side. Made up string and cans for both sides so that the waterline could be compared. And checked against the original paint job it was: Close Enough.
Tight confines require that mid girth of the hull is located and the string securely taped to the boat in that exact spot and height. 3 pieces of immobilizing blue tape. Weighting the nylon string with gallon cans of resin (not sure that the house paint Tim uses is fully copasetic for this in-your-face left coast operation) makes it bar taut and straight as a laser. You semi lift the can to move it back and forth on the beam or you might saw through the string.
One end of the boat at a time is done from the mid-point. Half of the string remains unmoved as a constant reference. If a can is moved too close to the hull the curve of the bilge bows the string down. Have to be careful to just kiss the hull and lock it in place each time with a piece of tape. Worked out every 8" or so. The process requires constant sighting along the straight part of the line going to the opposite board and visually 'dragging' the straight half part of the string back where the string is being tacked to the hull. Go back to these single tapes and micro-readjust until a waterline reveals itself. Time consuming, exacting, tedious - and satisfying. Description of process also tedious. Sorry.
Marked the hull with a very fine line sharpie along the string between the tapes.
In other words that whole section of waterline from the middle of the boat to either end is taped to the hull. Have lunch, Take a walk. Come back, take another look, move up and down with your eye using the straight part of the string AND the far horizontal as datum, trying mentally to bring it around the curve. It is pretty easy to introduce a downward bend in line - you have to keep picking up on the dead straight datums. Then mark along the top of the string with the sharpie.
After marking, remove the tape pieces - but NOT the X'ed center - and move the can back to parallel (about 42" out from the center - which of course you had to guess at). Check the string is absolutely straight. Then tackle the other half of the boat using the straight part of the string for sighting. Sight and tape the full length from the center to an end. That weight-can on the side you are moving and marking will be way over the other side of the center point of the plank as you tape the last 8" stations at the bow or stern. Hold the string, which doesn't like being there, with a squeeze clamp. Mark the top of the string between the tape strips with the can squeeze-clamped way over.
Later when the side was sharpied end to end, the blue tape stripe was added on the new waterline for a welcome visual reward,
That's one way.
There is real magic in getting a straight line on a boat. I'd guess 98% of the boats coming into the yard have crooked waterlines. I've seen crooked boot tops on boats at the boat show!
Tim, I know, did it a lot easier, but then he had all of Maine to do it in,
Little Gull has but a tight little funky plastic garage in a San Rafael parking lot. It works surprisingly well where a laser can't go. Thanks Senor Tim! - enjoy your writing and tips and consummate skill!
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Kidding aside, Tim Lackey's Triton 381 website is the best resource there is for a plastic classic revamp. And he has kept it available for everyone.
He's Casey at the bat for Carl Alberg / Pearson boats. He is the only one who chronicles the renovation game inning by inning, play by play.
For square-one amateurs he's the king of boat projects. He out-caseys Don Casey on specifics. His public project logs are classics that stand far above everybody else's blogs on any boat subject.
Finding information about projects and rebuilding a plastic boat is time consuming and mostly disappointing. I've come to hate forums.
Tim has a literary style that lifts a chore into an art form.
This amateur has constantly been thwarted by incomplete information, lack of pictures/close-ups, and questionable methods. That is why I go on too long on details - frustration.
How-to books are always disappointing to me. They are information 7-11's. On the internet Tim is the best friend/instructor any amateur boat restorer can have... looking over his shoulder.
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