Hi!

My name is Magnus, and I am a new member of the F16-class.
I have bought Geert Ruesinks Taipan 4.9 from the Netherlands. I live in Göteborg (Sweden), and I am probably the first F16 hitting Swedish ground.

I am pretty new to catamaran sailing. I have done some hobie 16, and tested the A-cat. I have some experience racing with keel boats, but now I got addicted to the speed of cats

I am thinking of giving the boat a new paint job over the winter. Any color suggestions? Maybe silver metallic to match my car?!

Welcome Magnus, I hope you get some great sailing in your Taipan.

There are several silver painted Stealths here in the UK and they look really cool with black beams, mast etc.




So, why don't you 'go for it'!

Hi Magnus,
go for it, metallic silver is a great colour for a F16 (or any fast boat !!
My boat is about 2 years overdue for a new spraypaint, if you`re handy with a spraygun you can do mine too.

Steve

Welcome to the club Magnus !

You're most likely the first F16 to arrive in Sweden, but I dare bet that you won't be the last.

Fair winds and best of luck.

Wouter

P.S. silver metallic has my vote as well. After bright yellow, of course

Guys,

How much lead are you carrying ?

Unless you are taking off the appropiate amount of paind/gell you'll be adding a few KGs by painting your boat !

As much as I like the look of a silver boat, there is a real downside, any metallic colour is a real bitch to repair and only the very experianced car repairers will be able to get a descent colour repair, you can always seem to see the repair " edge " and on long flat surfaces such as a boat hull it sticks out like a dogs ****

My suggestion to anyone repainting their boat is to choose a non metallic car colour ( eg Ford Diamond White )with a known colour code and then you will always be able to get a good match

In answer to Scooby, you would be better off to worry about the extra couple of beers you had last night than to worry about the 1/2 kilo extra in paint.

1/2 a Kilo you think.

When talking to John P about my new boat; I briefly discussed having it yellow; 5 KG (IIRC) of paint would be added to the boat to get a good finish.

Anybody who knows if the red colors are UV-resistant nowadays? Or would it be bleached and get ugly after a couple of years?
I really like the red color on the latest Volvo models. I am thinking of that one as well.

Simon, 5 kg's?? Whow! Never tought about that, but you are probably right. Thinking back to when I painted the last set of hulls, it required quite a lot of paint..

But if you are not going to paint it, what are you going to do? Go for the 'natural' carbon finish (which requires UV blocker in either the matrix or a clear finish with UV blocker)?

Yet another argument for boats buildt in wood with a clear finish. Or.. How much does 5 layers of clear UV block weight?

Paint typically weighs around 1.25kg per litre.
Yellow is a very difficult colour to get good coverage.
It looks good but you need a lot of it.
Just the way it is.

Regards,
Phill

You're quite right of course Scooby, however I'd assumed from Magnus's question that he would be sanding the boat back fully before repainting it as he was asking about a change of colour....

Whenever I've had a painted boat (as now) I've always maintained it in that colour by rubbing it back every couple of years and then giving it one new topcoat - ergo, no weight gain (in theory)

On the one occasion I DID decide to change colour (went from an orange Swift to white), I sanded the boat right back almost to bare wood before applying two coats of white undercoat and finally one liberal white two pack topcoat. Again I don't think the boat gained any weight and may have even lost some!

The exception to this must of course be someone painting a gelcoated boat for the first time. As said in other threads on this site, it really must be a last resort as there are other ways to revitalise dull gelcoat...

I still think that Silver looks really cool, the only downside is that metallic paints are slightly heavier than plain colours and I'm told that some paint colours are heavier than others anyway. I'm assuming that clear will be the lightest, but does anyone know if there is a source anywhere on which colours are lightest (in weight), assuming the same covering ability?

The main issue with clear carbon/epoxy is black is a great adsorber of heat..
Unless the epoxy is post baked (100C or so) then it will have the lower natural softening point.. Around 65C in some types of epoxy.. This may seem high but on the beach in our down-under summer the epoxy noticably softens..
Much better to have light coloured hulls..
Just a thought..

S..