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Just looking at the 1050 for sale reminded me to post this. 

Two years ago we wrapped our boat dark blue. Looked beautiful. Until bubbles  started to appear on the hull. Surveyor tapped and concluded delamination.  He said he was working with another boat with same issue. 

Long story short and $000's later have just stripped and repainted. Turns out the builder didn't put enough effort into prep between layers and the heat generated by the sun on the dark colour encouraged separation. It occurred mainly in the fairing compound so a lucky escape. 

Not really anything to discuss just offering a warning to anyone considering a dark paint job to think about the risks.   Wish I'd known. 

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10 hours ago, Addem said:

Just looking at the 1050 for sale reminded me to post this. 

Two years ago we wrapped our boat dark blue. Looked beautiful. Until bubbles  started to appear on the hull. Surveyor tapped and concluded delamination.  He said he was working with another boat with same issue. 

Long story short and $000's later have just stripped and repainted. Turns out the builder didn't put enough effort into prep between layers and the heat generated by the sun on the dark colour encouraged separation. It occurred mainly in the fairing compound so a lucky escape. 

Not really anything to discuss just offering a warning to anyone considering a dark paint job to think about the risks.   Wish I'd known. 


Sure old style carvel planked boats with caulking in between the planks would usually be painted white, as dark colours were said to attract too much heat and open the planks - but then again I seen plenty of Pommy carvel planked boats painted dark colours.
Had a black hull on my previous boat.  GRP 70's built. No delamination issues.  I'm no boat builder or technician, and probably prone to 'Bro Science' LOL, but if a dark colour hull is enough to delaminate a Farr built with modern methods, then it was built like sh#t. 

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Part of build quality is adhering to the specification of your materials. Some materials strength and durability is affected by heat. Generally Polyester fairs better than epoxy. Industry standard practice is to avoid dark colours where expansion/ contraction is detrimental. If your back pocket doesn’t mind , have at it.

Eg certain cedar profile weather boards an human obsession with black. Bad building practices just make degradation faster. West 410 not recommended with dark colours. YMMV.

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looked at a  farr early 90s at pine harbour,very cheap until we talked to the broker,full of pox and delaminating,only good for parts.White gel coat,its all in the build.  Humidity/heat etc was resin mixed right or layed up in a timely manner,all sorts of variables has an effect. As Pricilla posted carvel no issue if built well.Moana laid off Devonport for years painted black

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There are certain foil wraps that were not available for our Pogo. Too dark. By boat 50(?) they had changed the foam sandwich (I think) and a palette of slightly darker colours was added - still no black or dark blue, tho, afaik 

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John Mac Farlane did a boating article on colours. As I recall there was a surprising difference even between white and gray let alone the darker colours.

Then again , our 49 yr old boat is blue over cold moulded kauri and a boat cloth sheathing, paint job needs to be done ,patches etc, but its 20 yrs old and serviceable. 

Waitangi is glassed, incidentally. 

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On 7/05/2024 at 12:04 AM, Zozza said:


Sure old style carvel planked boats with caulking in between the planks would usually be painted white, as dark colours were said to attract too much heat and open the planks - but then again I seen plenty of Pommy carvel planked boats painted dark colours.
 

But then again.. how many black hulled yachts do you see sailing in pommy land actually get to see any sun with any heat?

My kauri carvel planked hull is kept gloss white and I see very minimal seasonal movement...

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8 hours ago, LBD said:

But then again.. how many black hulled yachts do you see sailing in pommy land actually get to see any sun with any heat?.

Well, Global Warming will fix that.  Pommy land be the new Miami? 😆

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