Some may think that painting a boat yellow is somewhat counter intuitive and some what un-nautical. Classic white, various shades of blue or grey, and black for work boats is more the traditional norm and with the modern mass production of fiberglass boats, white hulls have become pretty ubiquitous.
One day while I was restoring my Zephyr and toying with the idea of painting the boat yellow I heard on the National NZ concert programme the announcer (when introducing the next piece of music) say that whenever he hears a Bassoon sonata or concerto he is convinced that the Bassoon is smiling!
That's how I feel about yellow - it's a colour that is always smiling.
So now I have a yellow boat. The colour yellow is happy and bright and positive and cheerful and reminds me of the sun and summer. It puts a smile on my face.
Postscript:
To date the colour record of sailing boats I have either built, purchased or restored in both timber and fiberglass has been:
Blue - NZ 'P' Class "Panic"
Red - NZ 'P' Class "Elusive"
Red - OK Dinghy "Okere"
Blue, Grey, White - 30' Yacht "Mariner"s various colour iterations.
White - Restored NZ 'P' Class "Dart"
White - Restored NZ Starling Class (Sold before I could decide on a name).
Black - Restored fiberglass clinker sailing dinghy "Scout"
White - Laser "Echo"
Yellow - Restored NZ Zephyr Class "Slipstream"
Other boats have included various yacht tenders (all white) a blue sea kayak and yellow and white inflatable dinghies.
At the moment I own three sailing dinghies, a 30' yacht and it's dinghy tender - Five boats which is quite enough boats to be going on with. If I had more sense I would get rid of three of these especially as I am close to beginning a new build (watch this space).
4 comments:
Your boat, your choice..! Have to say I like yellow for the same reason you do, it's a reminder of the sun and sunny days...
I seem to remember reading somewhere that green is an unlucky colour for boats??
Steve, another reason in favour of yellow I didn't mention in the post is that when I was sailing P Class yachts 900 years ago there was a Finn Sailor, one Brett de Thier (2X NZ Olympic Rep) who had a beautiful yellow wooden Finn called 'Finnsarby'. I used to go soft at the knees just looking at his Finn and lusted after the boat with a vengeance. I am sure that memory is part of the choice of colour as well.
I think you are right about green traditionally being thought of as unlucky. A quick look on Google informs me that sailors didn't like green because it was the colour of mould that wrecked sails and caused rot in wood. Also green is the colour of land something that sailors don't want to run into in the middle of the night - associations serious enough for sailors to think green as unlucky.
We have a yellow boat, a green one (unkindly described as Austin Allegro green), a red one, a blue one a black one and a cream one - they all seem to float touch wood.
As was also thought bad luck to have women on a boat - can't say I've noticed must ask Mrs BB what she thinks.
My wife once owned a green Austin Allegro which surprisingly she had a trouble free run with considering the reputation of British Leylands cars in the 1970s. It wasn't British Racing Green, more a cross between grass green and leek soup green.
I think Max that owning six boats is simply not enough - it's time to expand your stable and purchase a few more - you know you want to.
I always think that having women on a boat is like going mixed flatting - the feminine element aways seems to raise the male behavioral level to something resembling normal.
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