Help Changing Waterline Stripe

[JerryRoss]

My Catalina 350, hull #350 sits somewhat low relative to the white boot stripe and bottom paint. The white stripe bottom is the bottom paint top, and that line is only about one inch above the water level. Also, the boat sits somewhat low in the stern and I get water stains and some growth on the stern which has no bottom paint. I am thinking about raising my bottom paint position and/or adding bottom paint on the stern. This could involve repositioning both the 1" white boot stripe and the 4" blue stripe above it. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has changed their bottom paint level and the particulars as to how they did so including techniques. I also welcome comments from others. Thanks. Best regards, Jerry

[wolfe10]

Jerry,

Frequently done on a lot of boats. Before pressure washing, mark every 2' or so a short line 1" or so above the true waterline. If the boat is not loaded, perhaps 2" above the current true waterline to account for loading and people weight if going cruising.

Sand out the ridge where the old bottom paint meets the stripe/fiberglass so the new paint will not have a noticeable ridge.

Use tape to connect the marks, remove any wax on the fiberglass portion and sand the fresh fiberglass so paint will adhere and paint away.

No big deal. The only important port is to MARK where you want the new bottom paint line BEFORE removing the scum denoting the true waterline.

Brett

[Triumph]

Brett gives good tips. Repainting the boot stripe or the white 1" stripe is not difficult once you've raised the bottom paint up. You can use a one part or two part polyurethane using the roll and tip method and get good results. To get good adhesion, you must sand the areas to receive paint. Back under the stern area, I wouldn't worry too much about the details, as this is hardly noticeable. By details I mean the width of the boot stripe, raising the bottom paint higher here, etc.

As a short cut, if you paint over the white 1" stripe, and don't want to go to the trouble to replace this, use 1" white tape that you can get at West Marine that is made for this. It will make a big difference in the final appearance, and it's easy to apply

Bill on Triumph.

[R.B.]

One additional thing to think about. If your hull has several layers of epoxy on under the anti fouling, you may want to build up the epoxy in this new area as well. I am also considering raising my water line in the spring and will paint 4 layers of Interlux 2000 epoxy on just as I did when I bought the boat. To make things easier, I am leaving the blue stripe as is and just painting over the white

[wcconway]

We are getting ready to pull our boat for our first bottom job and we have the same waterline issues, especially at the stern. We have decided to reconfigure the waterline, too. Please keep us posted with your progress along with some photos if you don't mind. We will do likewise.

[KenKrawford]

I agree with all the input so far with special emphasis on putting on some type of barrier coat on the transom. There was no bottom paint on my transom when I bought my boat. In a couple of years, I developed 6 blisters where the stern was sitting low in the water. I hauled this spring for a bottom job and put a couple of coats of West Systems epoxy over the area before applying bottom paint.

[wcconway]

We had a bottom job in January (Pensacola Shipyard). We brought the waterline up the stern to account for the boat sitting low in the water (A/C and genset weight). It is sooooo much better.

[Triumph]

Very good. If you ever want to return the white stripe between the bottom paint and the boot stripe, you can use 1" white tape made specifcally for this available at West Marine. It's inexpensive, lasts for many years, and is simple to apply verses painting on a stripe.

Bill on TRIUMPH

[JerryRoss]

Thanks to everyone for all the good feedback on raising my waterline. I finally decided to keep my original blue boot stripe and white waterline stripe and just wrap the bottom paint around the stern. The Admiral thought that would look best. It appears that will work just fine as my boat does not have a gen set or dingy on the stern. Attached are a couple of photos of the results before launch and one afterwards.