I was wondering, is there any FE83 painted black (or any dark color)? Our team really likes the idea of painting our topside hull black, but I was worried that more extreme thermal cycling might cause some problems.

I once met a blue FE83, I know I have a picture of it somewhere.

I discussed this matter with a guy who painted his Inferno 29 blue. It looked really nice, but he complained that it was really, really, really hot inside the boat during summer and that every little scratch the boat got (you won't notice how many of these you get with a white boat or coloured gelcoat) shone through very well. He wouldn't have chosen that color anymore.

edit: there you go;

Observe some boats with dark blue hulls - they all look shabby after a few years. Every intense color deteriorates because of UV. Make it dark and you'll repaint it regularly. Also, it will be hot inside during sunny days, and small items left on the deck won't be seen as easy as on the white.

Actually a good point on the visibility, difficult to say emerging problems if deck is black. I.e. how about sailing in low-light conditions in general, is the risk of not seeing ropes etc. bigger than normal when there is limited light reflection from the deck. Also the needed maintenance would be lot more laborious than for white deck.

Granted, it looks cool but there must be some underlaying reason why very few racing boats have black or dark decks. Hugo Boss is maybe the only one I know but maybe it is not a representative example of racing yachts

Petri, topsides != deck. Topsides are the sides of the hull.

alex wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 11:22 am Observe some boats with dark blue hulls - they all look shabby after a few years. Every intense color deteriorates because of UV. Make it dark and you'll repaint it regularly. Also, it will be hot inside during sunny days, and small items left on the deck won't be seen as easy as on the white.

Even though the deck on Charlotta is only light grey, it's still too hot to walk barefeet on during sunny summer days. I can't imagine how hot it would be inside with black topsides, especially if the boat's not insulated from the inside.

Deck will stay white (might repaint, or leave as it is for now), I am planning to paint sides of hull black. There are few boats with black sides here in Estonia, looks really nice. However they are all relatively new boats. My biggest concern is if extreme thermal cylcing may cause some damage to hull. Is FE made with polyester or vinylester resin?

Plan is to use Tikkurila temadur paint and maybe clear coat.
Blue FE looks nice too, darker blue is also on table for us, but if we decide we dont want dark color, then probably white will have to do

alex wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 11:22 am Observe some boats with dark blue hulls - they all look shabby after a few years. Every intense color deteriorates because of UV.

Good quality paints do well in UV. Cars still look nice after 20 years. The same applies for boats, if paint quality is good. Dark gelcoats are a real problem, even for premium brands. E.g. I know several X-Yachts, which had their dark blue topsides repainted already around 10 years of age. And they did look bad before painting. Wax grinding helped only a half a summer. A friend of mine has a boat with painted very dark blue topsides from 2008. Still looks as good as new.

Topsides of a FE are solid polyester laminate. It will tolerate quite high temperatures, but since there is no core to insulate, it may become quite hot inside.

Update: Painted (temadur 50), waiting for wetsanding and polish

Nice, great place to spraypaint. No neighbours and probably less dust as well. Did You get a lot of dust in the paint?

I assume You spraypainted. How many layers? Looking forward to pictures after wetsanding and polishing!

Yes i did spray. Not much dust, however there was few mosquitos, luckily just one got stuck between layers (I removed it before next layer). I painted 4 layers, First layer sprayed on horizontally and other 3 vertically so that spray termination points were on cover film. Overall I would say it was pretty successful paint job for first time, does not need much wet sanding to get it perfectly smooth.

Congrats. Hoping for more pictures.

Doesn't look bad at all. I wonder for how long the dark paint will still look good. Please keep us updated.

So, here is the update: left side is wetsanded and right side polished (no wax). Since they forgot to send first step polishing paste, i cant completely remove sanding scratches, but I can not see them more than meter away. I will have to do it with just last step polishing paste, since Lagle III will go in water at Sunday morning.

Lagle is finally back on racecourse:
What I would do different next time: More than 4 layers of paint and 3 step polishing after watersanding (I did 2 step). But it does not matter much, since those imperfection (sandpaper scratches that medium grit polishing paste did not remove) are noticeable only very close (less than 2 meters). Salt from seawater is more noticeable