Hull Colors

[S&S]

Light Beige deck (just to keep the glare down), white topsides. No need to roast.

[imagine2frolic]

I painted my topside 5 years ago with AWL-GRIP, and it's still shiny. In vivd red, and when placing my hand on the white stripe I can feel about 5-10* difference. We have been in the Bahamas as late as August, and still the boat is cool enough to take afternoon naps. The house is fully insulated with 1 1/2" insulation, and the deck too. Having 22 ports, and hatches along with a large companionway door causes great ventilation.

This is the deck when I bought the boat. We had to walk on the white, or toast our tootsies. It didn't take long to get rid of that dark on the non-skid......i2f

[DennisM]

I love my black hull, and I'm keeping it. Aesthetics have always been more important to me than practicality. It's just one of my character flaws.

[FloridaWriter]

Originally Posted by peterroach

There is an old saying - "there are only two colors to paint a boat - black or white. Only an idiot would paint his boat black." I am sure that was before all of the wonderful paints that hold their color came onto the market; but, I agree - White is the way to go. Just walk on a light gray deck in the summer in the Islands - Yeow!

Hmmm... Hal Roth painted the topsides of his Spencer 35 "Whisper" black. I wouldn't consider Mr. Roth to be an idiot in any way.

[speciald@ocens.]

A friend of mine had a black Sabre in N. Florida. It got so hot you could feel the heat when you walked by the boat. Mine is colored Awlgrip Moon Dust (see Avitar), the nonskid as well. Here in the Caribbean it stays cool and the decks are cool enough for bare feet. Teak decks are a problem down here as they get to hot to walk on.

[GordMay]

I think it was Nathanael G. Herreshoff* (or perhaps L. Francis) who said: "There are only two colors to paint a boat, black or white; and only a fool would paint a boat black.”

* Neither of them fools.

[barnakiel]

Our topsides are black, but they are only 2-3' so maybe this explains why we did not feel any heat down below in the tropics (and the sun being very overhead does not heat the topsides all that much either).

Our deck is white, but not off-white. More like half way between the Island Packet and Bennetau. Cool. I hate shining white decks so common on many today's boats.

b.

[tallyhorob]

Just an FYI hint for painting anything RED, base paint or prime with dark gray first. This goes for walls, boats , houses etc. And then its only 2-3 coats to get the right red.

[minaret]

I'm a proffesional painter who has painted hundreds of boats with various LPU products over the years. There is one important factor not yet mentioned on this thread. On a fiberglass hull the extreme heat caused by dark colors causes the glass to shrink over time. This causes what we call "print-through". If you walk down the dock in your marina and look carefully at any dark glass hulls you see, you will notice that you can see the weave of the fiberglass through the paint. If a boat has been faired at any point in her life this problem is exacerbated by the different shrinkage rate of the fairing compound and the glass. If you look at Interlux' painting manuals there are temperature ratings for different colors in exposure to bright sunlight for long periods. Flag blue is rated at 280 degrees fahrenheit! Thats like putting your boat in an oven for months at a time. While it wont "soften" or structurally damage your boat in any way, it will make it impossible to keep a fair hull. Some clients don't notice things like print through, others think it's hideous. As someone who spends a lot of time making boats pretty, I notice it right away even from a distance. I would never paint a boat of mine a dark color unless it was not fiberglass, and not in the tropics. Newer boats have less problems with print through because the vinylester resin they use these days shrinks less than the old production ortho resin. They also tend to skin coat the mold with a finer weave glass for the first layer to prevent the huge ugly 24 oz. roving print you see on older boats that are painted dark. I've talked lots of cruisers in refitting in our yard out of darker colors over the years just by showing them some examples.
If you must have color, I have noticed that warm colors have lower heat ratings than cool ones and consequently print less. By which I mean that reds and yellows pick up less heat than blues or greens. And remember that heat is even worse for a wood hull than a glass one as it will cause more exteme temperature differentials in the planking and require you to caulk seams more often.
Have fun out there!

[anotherT34C]

Interesting... at what distance can you see the fiberglass weave?

And let's say for argument's sake that the owner has self-painted, and brushstrokes are visible from about ~5ft away. *ahem* Do the brush-strokes in this case dominate the 'imperfections' so that you don't notice the weave?

For the record, I noticed essentially no difference in interior temperature with the hull change of white -> flag blue. Of course, freeboard is relatively low and I'm not in the tropics.

[FloridaWriter]

I checked the temp of my flag blue hull Yesterday with a laser themometer and it was 91 degrees in the afternoon sun. The off white cabin side was 82 degrees. Such a the big deal about dark blue topsides! I have had my mine this color for 15 years in Florida and have not noticed any appreciable difference than when they were white. (And there is no print thru either.)

[minaret]

Originally Posted by anotherT34C

Interesting... at what distance can you see the fiberglass weave?

And let's say for argument's sake that the owner has self-painted, and brushstrokes are visible from about ~5ft away. *ahem* Do the brush-strokes in this case dominate the 'imperfections' so that you don't notice the weave?

For the record, I noticed essentially no difference in interior temperature with the hull change of white -> flag blue. Of course, freeboard is relatively low and I'm not in the tropics.

Distance of visibility of course depends on how bad print through is. And whether you can see it through your brushstrokes depends on how bad they are too. Depends on the boat. I'm guessing you're not noticing a difference in interior temp. because your hull is cored and therefore fairly insulated from outside temp.
Interlux gets their figures for peak temp. with panels placed horizontally in the sunshine, not a boat immersed in water, so obviously there will be big differences between realworld temps and their max temps recorded. They put this info out to cover their asses. Obviously a cored hull of a boat in the water will probably not hit over 200 degrees. But any of you who have experienced the "fry an egg on it" scenario know what I'm talking about. One earlier poster said his dark colored paint actually burned skin, which I can believe after looking at the manufacterers figures.
By the way, if you are painting in Awlgrip and brushing, you can get great results but it takes lots of practice. Make sure you are using the brushing converter and reducer-this is critical. Then ignore the listed ratio on the can and use about twice as much reducer as it says you should. Then remember that conditions are extremely important. Too much wind or heat and you'll get brushstrokes. Direct sunlight will cancel out flow for sure. Too much humidity and you'll get blush. Pick your moment and it pays. Sterling is easier to brush but Awlgrip is nicer. I did my boat this way-except the hull which I shot. Awlgrip over 545 brushed. It looks better then the sprayed hull does-no peel at all. I'll post a pic if you like.

[minaret]

http://www.triton381.com/images/awlgrip3s1.jpg

Originally Posted by FloridaWriter

I checked the temp of my flag blue hull Yesterday with a laser themometer and it was 91 degrees in the afternoon sun. The off white cabin side was 82 degrees. Such a the big deal about dark blue topsides! I have had my mine this color for 15 years in Florida and have not noticed any appreciable difference than when they were white. (And there is no print thru either.)

Are the pics on your website it's present color? Because that looks like Royal Blue or even Aristo to me, though the pics are small. The link is to a pic of a Flag Blue hull. You will notice it is much darker than your hull. It's darker than Navy. You'd probably have to go black to get any darker. There is a big difference in temp readings with relatively small differences in color.
Has your boat been in your yard for all of those 15 years? Cause I'm guessing it gets some shade or even spends some time covered if so. Big difference between this and a boat thats actually in use. Once again, if you want to see print through effect of dark hulls, just go walk some docks and keep your eyes open. I'm not making this up...

[minaret]

The other thing not mentioned here is the difference in prepwork necessary for darker colors-really for anything other than white. White hides imperfections-this is why people paint the interior of houses white. Everyone knows this. If you are going to paint in a color other than white you need to make the hull really fair first or every little wobble will stand out. Darker colors really do this well. Red will also make any unfairness stand out. This can take so much more work that we charge quite a bit more to paint a boat Flag or Super Jet Black than we would for the usual Insignia or what have you. I have painted only a few boats Super Jet Black, and we longboard to 220 for this finish.This requires multiple primer coats with sanding inbetween, unless you use hi-build which we dont like to do. Causes longevity problems due to vapor popping.
Look at a hull that is white with a broad stripe in a dark color, and you will notice that you can see every little wobble of unfairness in the stripe from almost any angle, but to pick out the unfairness in the white you need to look from a low angle with good lighting. This is why white hulls are painting 101.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by minaret

http://www.triton381.com/images/awlgrip3s1.jpg

Shiney