fairing the hull

Lots and lots of sanding going on.
I have nearly filled all the holes and cracks with epoxy now.

The other day I marked my guess at the water line so I would know where I can and can't use filler. I want to varnish the topsides but paint under the waterline, this is good for me because there are a lot more cracks mid plank and uneven bits under the water line than above it.

The shape of the rocker line leads me to guess that it should sit with the bow a few inches in the water. There is very little rise towards the bow and it just looked right. So I raised both ends of the boat to be exactly the same height off the floor where I wanted the water line to be at the bow and stern, and then made up a "T" shaped bit of wood at that height. As I moved the T shaped wood down the hull, I marked it off at intervals, connected the marks and I had my waterline.

I'm giving the topsides lots of extra care and slowly sanding the old wood, paint and filler back to nice clean wood as much as possible. You can see the nice kauri colour coming through now. It is a little hard to see in the photo, but it does look nice.