It was this that made her stand out!
I never had a thought of repainting her in any other colour, and was set on painting her black again.
But my dad and other people told me I shouldn’t paint her black, “it gets hot in the sun, its impossible to get a perfect finish, it will harm the hull and fiberglass laminates…”
For me this was all hard to take in and I didn’t want to think about it, I was so set on black, I mean that’s what made Waka Irie, Waka Irie. Its why I fell in love with it… she has been black since 2007 and in the last photos of her in black before she was sanded it looked ok. It’s a pity they did sand her before we got to see though, to see what it really did look like.
Any way I started doing my own research. I looked up different kinds of black paint including a paint called “cool colours” but it was only designed as house paint. And then there is this article I found: http://www.pcimag.com/articles/86552-when-black-is-white it sounded really promising but it’s a technology that seams to be still in development.
I Also read more on the damaging affect heat can actually do to a fiber glass hull.
And so slowly I came to except the fact that maybe black isn’t a good option to use again.
But im not going to simply paint her white! Its just too normal, I don’t want normal, so at the moment im looking at grey or beige and have been mucking around on photo shop a little.
Grey with a white boot stripe and red bottom paint actually doesn't look too bad, it's starting to grow on me, but there are many shades of grey to choose from also!
Anyway we still have some time to decide, as painting the hull is still a little ways away yet.
Only 3 more months till we are finally in New Zealand and restoration begins!
Peter Deverell