Blue versus white hull for liveaboard?

Skylark

Skylark

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Hi,

I'm hoping to take early retirment next year and hence I'm looking to change my 36ft AWB for something more suitable to liveaboard. I've been offered a reasonably good deal on a vessel that I like but I'm concerned because she has a blue hull.

I'm concerned about scratches, colour fade and heat absorption.

What's the general concensus re hull colour.....should I stick to white?

Many thanks
 
Another disadvantage of a dark coloured yacht is that at night it is difficult to see. We had three boats hitting us despite of the anchor light. Furthermore, a white yacht looks bigger.
 
Carmel2 said:
Do they get hotter on the inside in the Med sun?
Click to expand...

I asked this years ago before taking my last (dark blue) boat to the Med. Didn't get a convincing answer either way, but you'd certainly think a blue hull would be warmer inside by day (but perhaps cooler by night). Hard to tell in practice without trying one of each side-by-side.

Maybe someone out there has a cat with one hull blue, one white...?

Blue can look lovely, but it does go chalky* (waxing helps).

* white goes chalky, too...it just doesn't show.
 
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We've lived in warmer places for a number of years now, actually left UK in 1999.. Would certainly suggest white. The state of other coloured hulls after a few years is not appealing.

Bad enough for sails, lines, sprayhoods etc. Lot of wonga in maintenance.
 
I was told once by a GRP worker that any GRP repair work - ie filling - was more likely to shrink back on a dark coloured hull and become obvious to the eye due to the differing properties between the original GRP & the repair material.

Don't know if that's true or not - if it is, it may be a factor worth considering if you are buying secondhand.

You do see a few dark-hulled boats with the hungry horse look.
 
davidjackson said:
Hi,

I'm hoping to take early retirment next year and hence I'm looking to change my 36ft AWB for something more suitable to liveaboard. I've been offered a reasonably good deal on a vessel that I like but I'm concerned because she has a blue hull.

I'm concerned about scratches, colour fade and heat absorption.

What's the general concensus re hull colour.....should I stick to white?

Many thanks
Click to expand...

Because I know what boat you currently have I am wondering why you are considering changing it (or not trying the liveaboard live in it first and then change) ....

Not enough storage
Ability to cross oceans
Small fuel tank
Upgrading
 
cmedsailor said:
Because I know what boat you currently have I am wondering why you are considering changing it (or not trying the liveaboard live in it first and then change) ....

Not enough storage
Ability to cross oceans
Small fuel tank
Upgrading
Click to expand...

That's a really good question..............and I wish I had an equally good answer :confused:

I'm really happy with my 361 but I've never spent more than 2 weeks living aboard. Casting an eye around a few marinas (I've recent experience of Atlantic Spain, Portugal and Med Spain), it looks like 40 ft is more common.

I'd hence like something around the 40 ft size but I've come across a 473. I know this model well, my pal has one. I'm a bit worried that it's too big for my wife and me and I don't know if I could fall in love with a blue hull, hence my posting.

My 361 is now fairly well equipped and I guess there's a lot to be said in casting off and changing later, if needed.

The 473 has high topsides so I can see some challenges with such a big boat.
I did my YM Ocean passage on one of these and had a great time.....but that's not the same as just the two of us.

As always, thanks to all for the feedback, invaluable insight, please keep it coming.
 
If you intend heading south, then the darker hull colour will make things a bit wamer inside in summer, plus the upkeep troubles where every little scratch shows up. I don't know if teak deaking makes it hotter below or not but it is not nice to walk on in the summer in bare feet: much better to have plain white grp if that's an option.

We have a Bavaria 38 (which is actually 40 feet long...) and we find that it is about as small as we'd want to go. However, we have several friends who have circumnavigted in boats of about 36 feet, so it is very much what takes your fancy. When we were looking for a boat, the advice I was given by my uncle, a long term liveaboarder, was to buy the biggest boat we felt comfortable with. When we first sailed her, Rampage felt very large indeed; now we could probably cope with something about 10 - 15 feet longer if we wanted to.

Equally important for us was the layout and we got that wrong! Our thinking was we need 3 cabins to accommodate visitors (esp grandkids). Then our daughter had a thris child so all bets were off. We've found that what we realy need is storeage space, so the 3 cabin layout is now 1 master cabin, 1 guest cabin and a store cupboard.....
 
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davidjackson said:
Hi,

I'm hoping to take early retirment next year and hence I'm looking to change my 36ft AWB for something more suitable to liveaboard. I've been offered a reasonably good deal on a vessel that I like but I'm concerned because she has a blue hull.

I'm concerned about scratches, colour fade and heat absorption.

What's the general concensus re hull colour.....should I stick to white?

Many thanks
Click to expand...

We have a blue hull and apart from looking really well it soaks it the heat like water to a sponge. Our blue hull is painted with Awlgrip so we don't get the fade of the gel coated blue. Also have teak decks and they get too hot to walk on in bare feet, but at least the decks can be soaked down with sea water. Would we change anything . . . probably not!!
 
Have a dark blue hull on the boat here in Bahrain. Can say that it gets VERY hot to the touch in the height of summer. White decks help offset some of that. Looks smart though.

Given that the air temp outside is often around 40+C during the summer, we don't really notice if it is hotter down below or not, but I'm guessing it probably is. During the winter months when it gets down to around 20+ or so, it doesn't seem to make too much of a difference, although the boat is lined with foam and a carpet like fabric which might account for that.

FWIW, our boat in Turkey is white without teak decks and it has been plenty hot enough down below at times!

PT
 
We have a boat with a deep blue band on it just below deck level. Its amazing how hot it becomes to the touch during the summer months in the Med. The difference between the blue band and the white hull is very noticeable. For this reason alone we gave up the idea of buying a Discovery to replace our present boat as 95% of them have been built with dark blue hulls and we don't want to buy a new build.

I don't agree with some of the comments about teak decks also. Yes they cost more to maintain ours is 15 years old now and on average we have 2 mm wear down but the looks and insulation more than make up for the additional expense. Aesthetics mean a great deal when purchasing a new boat.
 
I have the typical HR dark blue band running above the ivory hull topsides and it does get significantly hotter in the Adriatic sun. Enough so that, although I love a dark blue hull, I would never have one.

Below, when I open a locker under the side-decks the heat pours out - they would make good ovens. The teak deck they are under gets too hot to walk on in bare feet. In comparison, the cabin top, which is a diamond-patterned, ivory-coloured, foam-sandwich GRP, transmits no noticeable heat into the cabin.
 
We have a dark blue hulled catamaran and we are in the Med, however when we wintered in N Wales I fully insulated the inside of the boat behind all the wall and headlinings using foil/bubblewrap type insulation. The insulation was brilliant for UK winters and is equally good at keeping the interior cool in the Med so we do not find that the blue hulls make the interior any hotter than white hulls would.
The best way of keeping the interior cool is to ensure you have excellent ventilation that works in all conditions - don't forget mossie screens on anything that is open.
Blue hulls do look more impressive provided they are in good condition, ours are Awlgrip so fading and chalking don't seem to be an issue.
If the boat meets all your other requirements then I don't think blue hulls should put you off. Whatever else you want or need on a boat do not forget that in the Med or the tropics you will live outdoors so make sure the cockpit area is well suited to that and also has plenty of shade.
 
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