Why White?

Two reasons: Market appeal and because white doesn't show wear to the degree a colored gelcoat will.

Do you want my smartass answer now or should I just let a totally opportune moment pass unnoticed?
 
Go ahead Mike, I'm gonna bite my tongue...
 
No, I think I'm doing huge amounts of damage here on the forum as it is. NBR won't recover anytime soon, and I'm just getting awful...I can hardly stand myself.
 
The Germans developed the commercial production of Polyester Resins. A British Spy stole the secret plans from the Germans at the beginning of WWII, but they only got the plans for large scale production of white resin. The British gave the information to the Americans who distributed it to Amercian Industry.

Ray Greene, in Toledo Ohio, got his hands on some of the white polyester resin and used it to make the first fiberglass boat in 1942. As pointed out by others in recent threads, the boating industry is notoriously lacking in innovation so fiberglass boats have stayed pretty much white to this day.

Ed
 
Ed, yer funny! And Jim isn't too bad in the humor dept. either.

Pete
 
In the sunny south, any other color would seriously burn your tootsies. Also where we are air conditioning would be impossible or impossibly expensive on a dark boat.
 
What charlie826 said!!! My hull is dark blue and when the sun is on the sides it gets very warm even on the inside.
 
It is the coolest to the touch, doesn't fade and is likely cheapest.
 
Cooler to the touch, cooler inside, less fading, better visibility, ...
 
I will only own a white boat [top and hull] and a white delta canvas. Otherwise, there is too much maintenance!
 
I earlier days most ships were black because it hides the scars of a working vessel, British warships though were sometimes in colors e.g. HMS Victory is yellow. White IMO was chosen for yachts to demonstrate that it was not a working vessel in the early days when customs tax officers would board vessels entering a port , this is also the origin of the yacht ensign. In any event, I think the idea was that even a government worker would recognize that only someone dumb enough to own a yacht as a toy would paint it white.
 
Ours is mostly blue :D although it is a relatively light blue. I think the color gelcoat is a lot better than it used to be. The boat that we demo'd looks like ours but was 3 years old. It still looked brand new.

I have noticed that color gelcoat is beocme much more common around here. Sailfish even makes a bright orange. [8D]
 
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