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Why is my bottom paint covering the original boot stripe?

zagnut

Junior Member
I had my 1984 30+ hauled out for new bottom paint for the first time since I purchased her four years ago. As you can see, her old bottom paint covers her original boot stripe and a new one was painted on. The old paint is a good 4 - 6 inches above the water line. My question is, do I keep it how it is, or should I attempt to strip off the painted on stripe and apply my new bottom paint below the original boot stripe? The guy at the yard said he has painted her twice before and raised it because she sat low.
 

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Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Common problem for all boats, all makes.
AFAIK the mold has the DWL established based on the designer's calculations, and this normally is based on a "light load" for displacement. (Notice how perfectly hull #1 floated in the photo session for the brochure... ! )
Owners, by and large, will add gear, spares, personal items, food and drink, and fill the fuel and water tanks... and the boat may well sit lower by an inch or several inches.
I personally know of several cruisers that had their boat's WL raised by 6 inches or more when preparing to head out. Looked odd when re-launched, and just right when they departed from our little club.... they are in Mexico and new Zealand, respectively, now...

Over 20 years ago I raised the top of the bottom paint from the stock one inch under the boot stripe to about a third of the way up the boot stripe.
A friend with an E-38-200 had his boot stripe repainted, also, and higher by a few inches.

Since owners will really focus on how the boat looks at the original commissioning, I suspect that the builder wants to have it float initially with the boot stripe about an inch above the top of the bottom paint. At that point it's an esthetics and appearance thing.
:)
As the months and years roll by the owner pretty much stops looking at it, but does get irritated by having slime growing above the painted area. Grrrrr....

And then there is the added diaplacement (and lowering of the whole boat a bit) as the bottom slowly soaks up some water, into the outer layer of gel coat. Hundreds of pounds can be added that way on boats the size of ours.

So, I blame it on designing for the visual "honeymoon" phase of initial acquisition, when us owners are dazzled by such details......
:rolleyes:
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
I'm due for a bottom job and I'll see if the yard can grind off the gelcoat line that Ericson used to make the boot stripe stand out.

My factory waterline is long since painted over, but the gelcoat impression under it calls attention.

Most late model sailboats around me have the bottom paint extended as much as six inches above the actual waterline. And those hulls are not nearly as subject to loading changes.

I need a Plimsol line.

plimsol.JPG
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
I tried that on the last haul-out, but it didn’t stick very well.What I should have done was extend the barrier coat up into the stripe first. There ended up being some small blisters in the boot stripe area, just at or above the usual water line.

It did seem to eliminate the nasty waterline scum-line, which was the reason I did it in the first place.
 
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nquigley

Sustaining Member
I'm due for a bottom job and I'll see if the yard can grind off the gelcoat line that Ericson used to make the boot stripe stand out.

My factory waterline is long since painted over, but the gelcoat impression under it calls attention.

Most late model sailboats around me have the bottom paint extended as much as six inches above the actual waterline. And those hulls are not nearly as subject to loading changes.

I need a Plimsol line.

View attachment 35753
When you took your 32-3 to Hawaii, do you recall approximately where your waterline was when you set off (relative to the OEM gelcoat boot stripe), fully stocked with extra water and fuel, food, tools, spare parts, etc?
When I painted my boat two weeks ago, my water slime level was ~1" under the OEM boot stripe so I repainted to the same level as before (1" below the boot stripe - which is where the barrier cost comes up to).
My fuel tank is 3/4-full and the water tanks are 1/2-full, but I only have one anchor and a minimal chain/rope rode, tools and a spare small jib on board at present (no food, tender, extra batteries, refrigeration system, or other 'stuff'). I'm wondering what my waterline will be when I'm fully set up for solo cruising.
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
There are formulas for roughly calculating the shift in waterline with cargo - their drawback is that no two boats have quite the same shape at the waterline, so some general rule-of-thumb value is used. Can't lay hands on the formula ATM - last time I had it in hand, it worked out that for an E29 you get 1 inch submersion per 733 pounds of cargo.
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
The 32-3 was still on her waterline when loaded. But a singlehander isn’t a crew of four with all their stuff and needs. The original E381 boot stripe is just too low, at least on my boat, even when lightly loaded.
 

wynkoop

Member III
There are formulas for roughly calculating the shift in waterline with cargo - their drawback is that no two boats have quite the same shape at the waterline, so some general rule-of-thumb value is used. Can't lay hands on the formula ATM - last time I had it in hand, it worked out that for an E29 you get 1 inch submersion per 733 pounds of cargo.
I doubt you will find the info you are speaking of. I got Silver Maiden just shortly after I graduated from the academy. I had naval arch fresh in my head, so not finding stability and trim tables in the documentation on board when I bought her I called Bruce King and asked for the info. He laughed when I asked him for them he laughed and said this is a yacht not a ship!

Stability and trim are indeed unique to each vessel. While at the academy we had to work out problems based on tables made for WWII Liberty Ships, but we were warned that even 2 identical ships from the same shipyard had unique tables in real life.
 

wynkoop

Member III
My second or third year of owning Silver Maiden I dealt with her water line because she was always down by the stern and got marine growth all over the boot stripe aft.

My solution was simple. Her boot stripe gelcoat was a light blue. NY harbor at that time was pretty cruddy, and the boot stripe was actually half submerged at the stern. I simply painted the boot stripe with BLACK bottom paint. This gave me a clean nice looking boot stripe fore to aft and kept growth off the area aft.

NY Harbor is much cleaner, so I could probably go with another color if I wanted, but I have grown used to the black stripe and I think it looks nice.
 
I think wynkoop was onto something when mentioning the bootstripe being gelcoat from the original layup of the boat. On my e25, it is certainly gelcoat, and therefore not protected from water intrusion. When I decided to bottomcoat, I removed all old paint down to gelcoat, then barrier coated to 1/2" above bootstripe, followed by antifouling to the same height. This gives added protection even when boat is loaded. Be warned that antifouling paints alone do not provide protection against water intrusion, and some sort of barrier coat should be used over the gel coat first.
 

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gadangit

Member III
I'm due for a bottom job and I'll see if the yard can grind off the gelcoat line that Ericson used to make the boot stripe stand out.

My factory waterline is long since painted over, but the gelcoat impression under it calls attention.

Most late model sailboats around me have the bottom paint extended as much as six inches above the actual waterline. And those hulls are not nearly as subject to loading changes.

I need a Plimsol line.

View attachment 35753
After looking up what plimsol meant, I saw one on a boat in the shipyard today. And an underwater penguin painting.

20201014_111107.jpg
 
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