Colors
Unlike with Meritaten, with Louve I have a choice. I can paint her whichever color I like.
Upon starting the build I had a clear picture how she should look: black hull, red (tan) sails. Roger Barns’ boat was inspiration.
I bought paint since long and was ready to go with black top coat. Then came doubts…
Wooden Boat forums were filled with warnings against dark, particularly black, paint on wooden hulls: they get sun heat, timber moves, salt stains all the time, epoxy can get soft, UV-radiation etc. But all agree that black hulls look great, oh yes.
OK, so why were there black sail vessels, in the time of sail & oar?
The answer is tar. Stockholm tar. To save money (and time) boats and some ships were smudged with hot tar which would never completely dry, staining everything which came in contact. It protected the wood very well indeed and even if planks were moving due to heat it would fill gaps, sealing the hull most of the time.
We have such a boat in our boatyard.
Crude workboat finish indeed but looks well on her.
OK then, I thought: let’s ask experts. With regard to colors experts are, naturally, women.
All of them, I mean ALL, said that I should keep the hull light color. No doubts. Jessica even suggested shell-white (tooth-paste white as I call it).
In the act of despair I asked Björn. No mercy either - keep her white (or light at least).
Well, I can always paint her black, ain’t it? After all - it’s easier to go darker than opposite.
I dodged the bullet and bought new paint: warm white, cream. I knew I don’t want tooth paste white like I had on Motoko so it was either off-white (Stockholm-white, cold) or cream (ivory). I went for cream, will play nicely with tanned sails.
Temperatures at night are sub-zero already so it is high time to finish this.
Comparison with primer (off-white) clearly shows creamy tone of the top coat.
It becomes less dramatic once the whole hull is painted - it is still white, just warm.
It will certainly be more evident once I get close to modern, GRP boat.
I cranked the stove to keep steady 20 degrees in the shed. It is already zero outside. I’ll give it 15 hours to cure (10 hours is minimum) and roll the second coat tomorrow.