What Colour Do I Paint My Boat? - New Zealand Radio Yachting Association Inc.

The colour we paint our radio control boats can make quite a difference to our performance on the race track. Usually we want a nice looking boat so we will take it along to the spray painter and will get a nice glossy paint job to our favorite colour. Add a few pin stripes and we are happy.

Well, mistake number one would be that the local spray painter would only care about good paint coverage and having a nice gloss finish. We quickly pay the cash because it looks so great but then we wonder why it is slower on the race track! Then comes regatta day and they weigh the boat and you find its 200 grams overweight. Yes, paint is very heavy especially undercoats, so it may be best to use no undercoat and live with a little see-through-ness in places to keep the weight down. I think ideally it’s about 8o grams for paint. Also use a paint that is flexible because as soon as the boat moves it can crack. You can now get a rubber additive for two-pack paints that stops the cracking.

Mistake number two is we didn’t realise that the the dark colours can deform the shape of a boat if left out in the hot sunshine. Many IOM boats have been left in the back of a car in direct sunlight and been totally ruined.

Mistake number three is wrong colour perceptive.

One of the first IOM boats I built was yellow! ‘Yellow Submarine.’ It was a fast boat but would not turn because of a design fault! I was always getting into trouble with this boat. Missing marks, misjudging port and starboard, and the constant cry from the shore was, ‘Yellow boat get out of the way!’ My next boat was grey. And the funny thing was I found it a lot easier to judge turning the marks and was a lot easier to sail, although the same design as ‘Yellow Submarine.’ Also, fellow sailors were not calling me out so much as the boat did not stand out and instead picked on the other yellow boat! Some boats do stand out from the fleet more than others! The grey boat did melt in the back of the car, so now I paint all my boats white.

I have found the white boat good visually around the race track. So colours do play tricks with our perception. I have the same problems with different coloured marks. Yellow marks always seem closer than what they really are, while green or black seem further away.

If I’m sailing at a different venue I will always practice sailing around marks before the start to familiarise with the distance rather than learning the hard way and missing the mark during the race.

I also have placed stripes on my sails that makes it noticeably different to the other boats and this is very helpful when in a big bunched up fleet heading for a rounding mark. Also coloured luff tapes help to see what side the headsail is on while goose winging downwind.