Blue Hulled Yachts !

pmagowan said:
So the final finish with awlgrip, is it better than a good gelcoat or is it just better than a faded old gelcoat?
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I'd say at least as good as new gelcoat from an aesthetic point of view. Possibly better; I'm not sure as I don't see all that much brand-new gelcoat :)

Not as tough though, and as mentioned above, if the colour is very different to the hull underneath, scratches are extremely noticeable.

Certainly agree with jwilson's point though - worrying about a shiny finish is counterproductive for a voyaging boat. I'd have either bare aluminium, old gelcoat, steel with commercial-type non-glossy 2-part paint, or heavy timber with basic paint - and in both of the latter regard paint touch-up as part of regular maintenance without being too fussy about the resulting appearance.

Pete
 
Of course the story was that GRP would need no looking after but its turning out that a wooden boat or lets say a painted boat just needs quick rub down and nice shiny oat of paint without a lot of techie application etc.
 
Blue hulls will absorb more heat than a lighter coloured hull.
More importantly they need REGULAR waxing or you will get serious UV degradation
Every time you use a compound to repair the damage / fading you reduce the remaining life of the gel pigment
 
mikeinkwazi said:
When I sailed my K36 Tri to the Med in 2005 I painted the (large!) deck area white. I forgot to do the blue floor under the cockpit boards. I the Med a disbelieving crew burned their bare feet on the hot cockpit! NB logically Red should be a good hot-sun-colour, but it fades to girly pink very fast.
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Similarly years ago was on a flotilla yacht which had a large dark metal plate in the cockpit for fitting the removable table. Treading on that with bare feet after a bit of sunshine was quite dangerous!

Mike.
 
When I bought my boat, the surveyor said that there were two things that people only do once. One was to buy a boat with a dark blue hull, and the other was to buy a boat with a teak deck; fortunately I do not have a teak deck!

Seriously, a dark blue hull does show fading and scuffs rather more than white, but I personally think the extra effort needed to keep it looking good is worth it, I think they call it the "row away factor". However, I would invest in a good polisher, especially on a forty odd footer!!
 
prv said:
I'd say at least as good as new gelcoat from an aesthetic point of view. Possibly better; I'm not sure as I don't see all that much brand-new gelcoat :)

Not as tough though, and as mentioned above, if the colour is very different to the hull underneath, scratches are extremely noticeable.

Certainly agree with jwilson's point though - worrying about a shiny finish is counterproductive for a voyaging boat. I'd have either bare aluminium, old gelcoat, steel with commercial-type non-glossy 2-part paint, or heavy timber with basic paint - and in both of the latter regard paint touch-up as part of regular maintenance without being too fussy about the resulting appearance.

Pete
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Interesting. I am always concerned about the look of my boat after major work or refit so if I was looking at a coating the appearance would be very important. However, that said, it hardly concerns me at all if it gets a scratch or even quite a large area of damage. I simply slap on some more paint to make it look a bit neater. As far as I am concerned operational wear and tear is to be expected but I can still take pride in my work.
 
richardbrennan said:
When I bought my boat, the surveyor said that there were two things that people only do once. One was to buy a boat with a dark blue hull, and the other was to buy a boat with a teak deck; fortunately I do not have a teak deck!

Seriously, a dark blue hull does show fading and scuffs rather more than white, but I personally think the extra effort needed to keep it looking good is worth it, I think they call it the "row away factor". However, I would invest in a good polisher, especially on a forty odd footer!!
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I am a glutton for punishment and would not be without a teak deck or the colour of my choice. My current boat is a light yellow which my sister says is primrose, not cream!!! I like the look of dark blue but I suspect I would choose a more unusual colour for my next boat as I quite like being able to be different from all the standard GRP boats.

p.s. I have never seen any deck that looks half as good as teak or offers even half the level of non-slip to grottiness ratio that teak offers. It is nice to walk on in footware or bare feet (in my lattitude).
 
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pmagowan said:
Also, why do people not insulate boats properly? This would prevent being too hot or too cold in equal measures irrespective of the lattitude.
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Insulation only reduces heat flow and delays temperature rises. Unless you have a heat source it doesn't help you stay warm and unless you have a heat sink it doesn't help you stay cool. For a dark boat in a sunny place, interior insulation will increase the surface temperature, which may not be a clever thing to do.
 
Nothing to do with teak decks but here's an interesting illustration of the effect that colour has on solar heating. We have some semi flexible solar panels fixed to the deck by the mast. They become too hot to walk on in sunlight whereas the white deck surrounding them is comfortable. That's because the dark colour of the panels absorbs much more heat than the white gel coat, thus raising the temperature. The same is true of the limited teak decking we have in the cockpit when it is exposed to the sun: comfortable underfoot in the shade, difficult to stand in the sun. It's for that reason I'd not have a teak deck on a boat in the Med or anywhere else sunny (and that's before taking maintenance into account).
As to having a coloured hull, I don't think it'll make much difference to the heat inside the boat but it is more difficult to keep it looking good.
 
In the tropics the sun in the hottest part of the day is pretty much vertical so the deck colour is far more important than the topsides. While I was building my boat the difference on the feet between the bare deck, a khaki colour, and the parts that had been painted was the difference between comfort and pain, and that was in England.
 
JumbleDuck said:
Insulation only reduces heat flow and delays temperature rises. Unless you have a heat source it doesn't help you stay warm and unless you have a heat sink it doesn't help you stay cool. For a dark boat in a sunny place, interior insulation will increase the surface temperature, which may not be a clever thing to do.
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Isn't the sea rather an effective heatsink?
 
pmagowan said:
Yes. All boats have heat sources, whether it be heaters, engines, gas hobs, candles or just the occupants. Of course insulation can't keep heat out for ever but in the real world this is unnecessary.
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I would be very interested to know the maximum safe working temperature for GRP hulls.
 
snowleopard said:
In the tropics the sun in the hottest part of the day is pretty much vertical so the deck colour is far more important than the topsides.
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The sea reflects a lot of radiated light/heat to the hull and a dark hull in the tropics will still be a lot hotter than a white one.
 
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