Best Gelcoat

[Sy-Revolution]

Hi folks,
Any recommendations on dark navy gelcoats? Good, bad, ugly or indifferent?

 

[alan]

Here in the Med dark navy gelcoats lose their nice glossy finish very quickly (within 2/3 years in some cases) and leave the boat (or at least the parts that are in the sun a lot) looking old and pretty horrible. The worst I have seen are on
"Beneteau" and "Grand Soleil"; I'm sure others are just as bad but there are lots of those makes in my marina. One boat near me goes to the trouble of putting canvas covers along one side of the boat to protect it from the sun ............. seems ridiculous to me as he spends more time covering/uncovering the boat than actual sailing !!!!!

Of course this may not be an issue where you are, but from my experience these dark colour gelcoats do fade very quickly in the sun.

I have to say though, that when new they do look good .............

Alan.

 

[hardy]

Had a Hardy once, Gel coat a nightmare when starting to fade , or scratched . would not go for that colour again .

 

[gjgm]

also note its one of the hardest colours to rematch. Well, I guess there arent that many colours on boats! Looks great,hard to re-match,more obvious fading (goes cloudy), especially around where fenders rub and around the transom, scraches through to base coat more obvious.

 

[Sy-Revolution]

Thanks for that. Although I was looking more for recommendations for/against on which products are the best/worst.................
Sorry I didn't articulate myself very well.