The Water Level

This is not about how to level water,it does that on its own anyway,rather about how to transfer a specific point from one place to the other.A simple length of 6mm clear hose bought for under R30 from our local Mica store simplifies my job of transfering an important datum line.

In this case its construction but it may just as well be the waterline on your boat,do you want to add a boot top line,is the waterline out of level right now,or are you building a new boat and need to level your bulkheads up? Marking the waterline on both sides of the bulkheads will save you a lot of time later on when fitting out.

6mm clear tube,filled with clean water and with two stopper plugs in each end to keep the water in place when its not being used.

Note,remove the stoppers when in use.

To start find a handy spot on the wall,transfer the datum mark to there,then from that point transfer back to what ever your trying to level,the reason we do this is as once the mark is transfered,we always know where we started,do not use a tree,they have a habit of growing!

How hard can this be.

R Mc B

A comment,please contact me if your interested in this device.

Hi Roy - just saw your blog on the water tube. Which reminded me of an "invention" I tried to patent about 15 years ago. Essentially it is a refinement of the water tube leveller, but has a wide reservoir on one end so that the water levels do not rise and fall on either side, allowing actual height datums to be read. See attached PDF.

I was amazed to see an article in SA sailing a few months ago by Aussie Bray detailing the exact same thing -said he couldn't remember where he read it - I meant to write to him and ask him but never got around to it.

But its genuinely quite a useful contraption!