Waterline tape

use a chalk line with a level?

efinley wrote: I'd really like to have 2 parallel stripes about 1.5" apart but I can't figure out how to keep them truely parallel. Does anyone have any advice? I think any varaiation would really show when you look down the hull.

I think how the pros do it is to lay down three pieces of tape touching each other, (with the middle tape being 1 1/2 inch in your case) Then pull up the middle tape leaving a perfect gap.

MN3 wrote: use a chalk line with a level?

Put down the crack pipe.

Lay down masking tape. Water-line tape on either side. Done.

i missunderstood the question as to be "truely parallel" to a straight line, not to eachother

Edited by MN3 on Jul 19, 2011 - 12:58 PM.

So I guess I'll just find some 1.5" masking tape and use it as a guide for the other 2 tapes.

Thanks guys!

Just make sure you don't leave the masking tape on for any length of time (i.e. don't leave it more than a day). The boat would look funny with masking tape baked into the gel coat! 🙂

Use painters tape, not regular masking tape. It comes in several widths, & won't stick, even if left on for days.
Have a close look at your cat while it's in the water. You may find that you don't want lines that are paralell to the garage floor, but paralell with the top decks,ie the Cat probably does not float in alignment with the floor. This could make the lines look weird.
The forums for detailing cars have lots of info on "striping"

Waterline tape--Pep Boys 36' for $10

Try a sign shop. They have vinyl tape in rolls that are about 8 inches wide. A little tapping on their computer and you will have 4 stripes on a roll cut on their plotter. They will put a backing tape on to keep them located and you would apply by pealing off the paper on the sticky side. Once in place you remove the backing paper and have two stripes the same distance apart. Might cost more than Pep Boys. Most sign shops have a large selection of colors some even reflective.

Ooh, many moons ago I worked for a decal company. We used to get this glow in the dark vinyl! That would look rocking at night! Of course the green/yellow color would do nothing for you the other 99% of the time. 🙂

OK that reflective and/or glow in the dark tape sure sounds fun! Now you have me thinking... 🙂

I'll find a local sign shop and see what advice they have. That does sound like the easiest way to keep them parallel.

Thanks guys and keep the advice coming! 🙂

BTW you can sort of see my old tape in the pic above my name. True 1983 blue and yellow! 🙂

The SC's really are a weird shape and are to be sailed nose-down. so be careful to tape parallel to the deck and not the bottom.

to make sure its perfectly straight you could use one of those drywall or decorating lazer pointers that shoot a wide angle line. that way you can see the straight line along your boat as your setting the tape of choice!
try homedepot or any local hardware store
http://www.homedepot.ca/product/laser-decorating-kit-laser-level-and-stud-finder/944961

http://www.homedepot.ca/product/box-beam-laser-level/944019

A friend and I applied the tape last week. Here's what we did and what we learned.

We made a mark at the front and back of the hull where we wanted the waterline to run. Then we adjusted the boat until it lines up with a grading laser level I borrowed from another friend. After that we used a 3" wide piece of blue painters tape to act as a guide tape. We could easily reposition this until we were happy. The laser was nice but probably not really needed. Use a wide (>2") tape help keep things straight, a narrower tape would bend too much.

Once we had the guide tape down we'd go about putting the vinyl tape on. We put on 2 stripes, 1 1.5" blue stripe and a .75" yellow below that. I found that a little squeegee really helped get the tape on w/o so many bubbes. My squeegee was actually a lid to a small plastic container, nothing fancy. i would hold the tape up against the guide tape and lay it down with the squeegee/lid. Something I learned after the 3rd stripe (we did inside and outside of both hulls) is that when you start to drift off the guide tape a little you're better off leaving it than pulling it back up to fix it. The tape will actually stretch a little when you do and you can see the "wow" in the tape when you look down the hull.

Once we put the top stripe on we went back with some .75" blue tape against the first vinyl stripe and used it to guide the 2nd.

It came out looking pretty darn good and I'm really happy with the result. Here's a couple pics of where I'm at so far:

-Eric

edit - I tried using the img tags for the photos instead of url tags but got the red X instead, what did I do wrong?

Edited by efinley on Aug 08, 2011 - 10:04 PM.

Eric, Boat looks beautiful, great job!

efinley wrote:
edit - I tried using the img tags for the photos instead of url tags but got the red X instead, what did I do wrong?Edited by efinley on Aug 08, 2011 - 04:43 PM.

You were probably trying to use the page url instead of the image url with the image tag. The way you get the actual image url varies depending on which browser you use. In Firefox you can right-click directly on the image and choose "Copy image URL".

Instructions for other browsers are in this FAQ
http://www.thebeachcats.com/faq/Forums/pictures-in-forum-faq/

Thanks Damon! I should have know the difference between the URL to a page and the pic in it! Doh!

Awesome work man! That boat looks faster just sitting there sporting those stripes! Nice buff job too, by the way. :klatsch:

Can't wait to see it on the water again. Looking great!

Looks really nice, I'm getting inspired. Did you customize the registration numbers as well? Seems to match the blue stripe and the font looks better than my black block lettering.

I guess I didn't mention what was done. I had the boat professionally prep'ed and sprayed with new gelcoat. They did all the work up to the polishing stage. Then my buddy volunteered the elbow grease to polish it the rest of the way and he did a great job.

The stripes and reg numbers are custom from Boat US. They have a great site for playing with the font and color of the text and they do graphics too. The cool part is that since they're from the same people the colors match really nice. I also found their prices to be really reasonable.