Sanding & finding the waterline

So sanding is progressing,  creates a huge mess as the fine dust goes everywhere.  It is starting to look very nice.  Once you get the excess glue from the joints it transforms into looking pretty cool.  Some of my joints between strakes are really good, such that you can barely see the join.  Others..well not so much, but it is what it is and I'm not going to worry about it.  Plus I suspect the joins will become a bit less visible when I stain it.  I have so far done about half the boat with 40 grit, and the other half at 60 grit,  plan

I went stain shopping yesterday, came away with a couple of test pots.  My plan is to get a couple of off cuts and then try staining and sealing with epoxy, and finally varnish to see what the final result should look like and also test compatibility between products.

 

 

Sanding is on-going, creates one heck of a mess.  Thankfully the wife has thus far been putting up with it, but don't want to push that to far.

 

Also been working on finding the water line.  I read a few accounts of how to do it.  Some using lasers, some a clear tube with water and others a stick of a datum (usually the ground). So I read all about these various techniques and thought I would use the laser method as I happen to have a laser level and tripod left over from building a deck a few years.  So consult the plans I located the waterline at the fore and aft end of the boat and marked these on the hull.  I then set the laser up so that by swivelling it on the tripod I could land the laser dot on both of these marks.  From there its a simple case of swivelling the laser and marking the hull at intervals.  So I did all of this and it was pretty easy and went according to plan.

 

However after doing a dummy run at this I came away with a nagging doubt, and it took me a couple of days to figure out what it was. The Monaco has a setup level, which is the true bottom of the stringers (top of them while upside down).  From this level the water line is located at a distance from this level at frame 0 and frame 8.  However the distance at these two location is different, which means the water line is not level when the boat is on the building form.  So I am thinking how can people be using a clear hose filled with water to find the level, unless of course the boat they are building does site on the building frame such that the water line is level, OR I am reading / doing something wrong.  This is something I haven't resolved yet.