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Glamin’ up your
NAUTIC 12.
I always reckon that a good looking boat always
sails faster than a cruddy one, it’s a proven fact While we are about
it, someone said recently that a red boat also sails faster than any
other colour.
Now there is no chance here that I’m going to defy
nature so we’ll take those statements as correct.
The reason I mention this is that I was in a class
of boat recently (before NAUTICs era) that all the boats were one
colour. I know the carmaker, Henry Ford would have approved, for he once
said “you can have any colour you like as long it is black”. The thing
with all having the same colour, is it first becomes a problem when you
all go around the bottom mark and you try to see which boat is yours and
invariably go off sailing the wrong boat. It somehow turns, when you
want to turn, till it is about to hit shore and everything you do, it
won’t come around???. It can only happen in R/C yachting!
This article is about ‘Glamin’ up your boat’. As
you know all these Nautics are of the painted variety. This means that
normally there will be one colour or another on each hull, or a two
colour paint job. Or there can be a single paint job of an allover
colour . This is all right if there is not another boat in your club the
same as yours. But if there is, then the Henry Ford situation comes to
life in little ways, fast. My thoughts in this article tries to put an
individualism look into each boat.
The first boat we did was Hairoil’s all one colour
boat of a turquoise blue. Now while the colour in itself stands out, it
did need something else. So I put a fairly big running writing AUSSIE 11
on each side. Hairoil, (an old sign writer by trade) was chuffed with
it. For it did look really beaut. It was done by a mate of mine who did
sign writing in the new stick-on plastics material. He just put them
through his works sign writing computer, put the required plastic sheet
in and let it go. Out popped the name about 20 seconds later, complete.
We cleaned the sides of the boat off with ‘metho’ and applied the
stickers and Hairoil was chuffed with the finish.
We tried the same on a red finished boat. It was
of course the quickest boat in the club. We did the three-word name on
the side about the middle of the boat.
White boats are always a problem because the only
colour that goes with it is blue. It’s a common known fact that the most
boats at the marina are blue and white. The number of these outweighs
all the rest of the colours, almost two to one. But with white there is
a prob, that there is going to be a big problem at ranging your sight
of the boat in the distant buoy roundings. For your got to do it with
the boat and the sails the same colour, every effort should be made to
distinguish your boat from the rest of them. This can take the form of
some sail marking like a flighted bird or a star or something. A few of
those tapes, I think they are called ‘pinstripes’ or panel tapes. Can
also look attractive and add colour to the boat. Pinstripes can also be
added to a different colour below waterline. Care should be taken here
on choosing a third colour for your boat, cause I remember when ‘multi
toned’ cars were the fashion that it was real hard to match three
colours. Three colours tended to look just too much, somehow.
I saw some boats that had a set of pinstripes that
were for a model airplane put on the front of some boats that looked
quite impressive. These can be bought at a hobby shop. Stars and other
‘spangly’ bits can be added for good relief, too. I have also seen quite
illogical scenes put on boats including injuns’ and hot-rods. One
particular designed ten rater had Panda bears on them that was cute. But
that just shows that it is to the owner’s choice to decorate. Stickers
of the owner’s country flag are also used. Anything that sets your boat
apart from the fleet is good here.
Ancient Mariner 2007.
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