Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/443

 Popular Science Monthly

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��burned off, but care must be taken not to scorch the planking.

To do this job properly, get a good- gasoline blow torch and hold the flame on the paint to be removed until it blisters. It can then be readily removed with a wide putty knife. Take care to extinguish any shavings that might take fire and always bear in mind that the torch will burn the woodwork if held too long in one spot. Start at the deck of the boat and work toward the keel. After the paint has been removed, the woodwork should be well sandpapered and a thin coat of white shellac applied to hold it until the job is finished. This shellac should then be rubbed down with No. OO sandpaper before the paint is applied. If the burning is not necessary, the woodwork may be scraped with a regu- lar cabinet scraper, care being taken not to gouge into the wood. Before commencing to paint the hull be sure that all planks are smooth; that the joints are all flush, smooth and fair and that all the holes are puttied up. Then ap

��ply one coat of good lead color and two coats of white. Zinc is not recommended for this use as it makes too hard a finish. White lead is of softer body and can be scraped down and re- newed without pro- ducing ridges. The copper bottom paint is the last put on and is generally left until the boat is ready to be launched, as this paint hardens better in the water than in sun and air. Scrape, varnish, and paint the interior of the boat before she goes over. Do all. the work before the boat is put in the water; for the chances are it will never be done if left until after the boat is launched. See that no paint gets on the screens covering the intake to water cooling- pipes, or closets, to

��Galvanized iron ^_ sides and roof .Sy-

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��clog them. Do a good job and paint every fraction of an inch of the wood- work so that your boat will be a pleasure and credit to you all season.

Scraping decks is hard work at best, but if a varnish remover is used to soften up the old varnish, it may be readily accomplished with a cabinet scraper or putty knife. The decks should then be gone over with sand- paper and well dusted before the varnish is applied. Three coats of varnish make a very satisfactory job if the woodwork is dry and warm and the varnish is applied with a soft, wide, flat brush.

The operator should become accustomed to the different kinds of buoys which will be met with on his trip. The Government has seen fit to chart the buoys for different bodies of water. The most common types are known as the spar buoy, Fig. 25, can buoy, Fig. 26, bell buoy, Fig. 27, whistling buoy, Fig. 30, nun buoy, Fig. 28, and gas buoy, Fig. 29. All of these are what is nautically known as floating buoys. There are also various kinds

��Length of boat-t-lp— 6 ' «|« £>' — »

��Platform

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���Timbers laid between platforms to earn boat during; the winter °Fig.20-A

��Three ways to protect the motorboat from the weather when it is not in service

��of spindles and beacons which are usually of a station- ary nature, being built on some wreck or reef.

Buoys have been called "the sign posts of the waterways" and there is probably no definition which could define them more clearly. Red buoys should always be passed on the op- erator's starboard or right hand side when entering the harbor; black buoys should be passed on the op- erator's port ©r left hand side, while buoys marked with red and black hori- zontal bands should be given a wide berth under all conditions as they are generally used to locate a wreck or some other submerged obstruc- tion. Buoys marked with black and white perpendicular mark

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