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Any issues with black as a hull colour?


Clive

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Hi All,

 

I am considering going for Vinyl black hulls on Tigre.

 

she has Cedar on the bottom and then ply sides and foam tops.

 

Anyone have any info on potential heat problems?

 

cheers,

 

Clive.

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The English will copy it ??

 

It would want to be a full gloss I think. Matt would suck the heat up more I'd think.

 

Yes full Gloss ... have the name and tiger in yellow...

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Interesting subject found this quote on another forum here http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f55/paint-colour-15470-3.html

 

probably beast avoided if possible.

 

"I just finished repainting my boat, 1982 vintage fiberglass. The transom and part of both sides were painted with black imron about seven years ago. The rest was white gel coat. The heat absorbed by the black portions of the boat made small cracks in the paint--only in the black areas. So I ground it off. The cracks persisted into the gel coat. So I ground it off. They continued almost 1/8 inch into the glass. So I laid up new glass over everything and called it a day. I also had a small dock ding on the white gel coat. The stress marks in the glass looked just like the heat-caused cracks in the black areas of the hull. I started to wonder if I had substandard gel coat, so I poked around the boat yard and examined all the dark colored hulls I could find. I looked at everything from production sea rays to chris crafts to 100ft plus yachts. Almost without exception, I observed similar cracking on all dark hulls over five years old. In fact, there was a dark green yacht of about 85 ft, 2003 vintage. It's entire hull looked horrible. The guy wanted to sell it, but had absolutely no luck. While this anecdotal tale applies only to fiberglass construction, it clearly points to the heat stresses placed on whatever material you use under a dark paint. My boat is now entirely white."

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Hi All,

 

I am considering going for Vinyl black hulls on Tigre.

 

she has Cedar on the bottom and then ply sides and foam tops.

 

Anyone have any info on potential heat problems?

 

cheers,

 

Clive.

G'day Clive. Careful, careful there!! Black is not good (as a general speak either OZ or NZ) Been building/repairing/spray-painting yachts & multi's for over 50 yrs. Whilst I realize that the sun doesn't shine much nor is very warm - where you live - so close to the South Pole, black is still not so good. If you choose black then get a top-shelf 2-pack Polyurethane & get them to add some silver to it when mixing in the black piment. The dispersed silver will reflect a large part of the heat normally absorbed by the dark colour. Others in here have suggested that it's hard to see - when it's not "this side up" so paint the bottoms 'day-glow orange' said in only 'part' jest. Careful choosing & good luck. Ciao, jj from the other side of the 'puddle' PS Black & all other dark colours will fade MUCH quicker than lighter ccolours. All dark colours would not be my choice even though I can do it for nothing. 'Crazing' may happen (likely to) in the paint & not only on firerglass boats!! jj

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Raced on a black hulled boat years ago.

 

Straight Black High Gloss paint dulls and goes matt, unevenly, showing all sorts of bumps & hollows. Salt & rain water from the deck scuppers soon made the black look sh!tty.

 

Trick we found was to mix 1/8th Royal Navy Deep Blue High Gloss into the black.

The blue did not fade as much and kept the "sparkle".

 

Did not try or know about the silver as commented above.

I don't think my owner was rich at all.

 

Yippes Gold antifoul and Silver topsides. What ever next :?:

 

Plastic tap fittings and door knobs :?: :?: :?:

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Nope, silver doesn't work..at least here in NZ sunshine anyway. Nor does metal flake. Just too much black. I don't know about cracking in GRP, but certainly you get dramatic decrease in strength and rigidity. For timber and ply, even glassed over, it is death. The wood just shrinks up and cracks and cracks the glass with it. Plus the stunning faired surface you have, eventualy becomes a mess as the timber shrinks and you start seeing nail/screw heads pushing through. But that is if it is a Hull that is permanently in the sun, as in moored. If it is a trailer boat and it can be kept under cover when at home, then that's a different story. Although the Hulls will certainly get hot while on the water, they should cope OK.

Make sure you use a two pot paint if you go that colour.

 

With our own boat, we orignaly had royal blue on the Hull. The heat that radiated through the Ferro on a hot summer day was unbelievable. So we painted it white. The deck has a very light blue antislip coating and on a hot summer day, I still can not stand on it, it's just too hot.

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The old hulls seem to settle in to their colour, they acclimatise to a certain extent. Moana, Mahaki , Viking.. they were black for large periods of their lives. Little Thelma was painted black for one season in the 80's but she moved so much Johnny G changed her back to white pronto. Waitangi is glassed too of course , so that might have some bearing.

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Triple 8 had a hatch blow out after he painted the hulls black. Admittedly the hulls on it are sealed but you'd have to consider the size of your buoyancy compartments (especially the forward one) and the expansion effect on them.

 

And as someone pointed out, making a lightweight cat invisible in the dark probably isn't a great move if you want to race at night.

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there is a big tri moored at Whangarei town basin on the poles with painted dark blue hulls, all the dark surfaces facing the north are badly cracked along the lines of the diagonal planks, the south sides are ok. :thumbdown: TL Systems had mid blue cabin tops and I think this helped to keep the boat drier inside over the years it was neglected as it was a lot warmer than white and never seemed damp in the winter. There is a guy that was and probably still is living on a big cat around the Gulf that painted his cabin white in summer and green in winter for that reason.

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Looks like the message is you can and it would look awesome but there are a few problems.

I painted my old trailer yacht sides a nice gloss black about 10 years ago and it looked great but was hot as hell in summer.

Also the Vinyl may not be as fade resistant as paint, I saw Full Metal Jacket last time I was in Melbourne the Silver Vinyl was quite faded and looked bloody terrible.

 

There are only two colors to paint a boat, black or white, and only a fool would paint a boat black.

-Nathanael G. Herreshoff

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If you paint it red it will go faster! :D But all colours except white require more tlc to stay looking good. Do yuo recall the buzz that went around when in '95 Team NZ came out with the black boats and the world over wondered how they'd done it?

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Even if the boat is older and quite fair, the extra heat can generate more print through from the mat and cedar until it settles again. So if you do it, allow for a 2nd refair and respray after 2 seasons.

Besides - I like the yellow.

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