{"id":59473,"date":"2023-01-05T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/?p=59473"},"modified":"2023-05-08T11:01:36","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T15:01:36","slug":"tell-tales-boat-wraps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/yachts\/tell-tales-boat-wraps\/","title":{"rendered":"Boat Wraps?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Steve <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n “In my mind\u2019s eye, I pictured Bill\u2019s new $2 million ride in fluorescent camo green with a breaching largemouth bass slathered amidships.”<\/span>\n Steve Haefele<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n\n

What do you think?\u201d my pal Bill asked. He\u2019d been bugging me for months about my opinion on tasteful topside colors. Before me was an image of his new 60-foot fishboat. \u201cIt\u2019s white. White is not a color,\u201d I pointed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScroll down and be amazed, Coyle,\u201d he insisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was the same image of Bill\u2019s white boat imagineered with a green hull. \u201cWhite is simply my creative palette,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It didn\u2019t add up. While Bill had opened his wallet for a new ride, he\u2019s thrifty. \u201cYou\u2019re gonna smother factory-fresh gelcoat with a pricey paint job?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course not,\u201d he announced. \u201cI\u2019m gonna wrap her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou mean for shipping?\u201d I asked lamely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHigh-tech vinyl,\u201d he said. \u201cGet with it, Coyle. It\u2019s the latest in yacht finishing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my mind\u2019s eye, I pictured Bill\u2019s new $2 million ride in fluorescent camo green with a breaching largemouth bass slathered amidships. Bill assured me there would be no bass graphics, just a tasteful forest green he\u2019d taken a fancy to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tried to understand. \u201cSo, you\u2019re covering a shiny new gelcoat finish with a cheap vinyl slipcover, like a worn-out recliner?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCoyle, they wrap Mercedes with this stuff,\u201d Bill barked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou mean like delivery trucks?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, like a quarter-million-dollar sports car, my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut,\u201d I continued, \u201ca matte vinyl finish on a yacht? I prefer the boat in the high-gloss white.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read More from Jay Coyle:<\/strong>\u00a0Tell Tales<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I then wondered to myself how it is we seem to be regressing as a species. Thousands of years ago, a primitive relation figured out how to whittle a boat from a tree. How long could it have taken this budding boatbuilder to noodle that his creation would look better if he scraped the bark from the log? Welded steel replaced the rivet-pocked topsides of ships in the 1930s, and fiberglass replaced plank-on-frame in production boatbuilding in the 1950s. We\u2019d come far\u2014to vinyl siding?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While early gelcoat finishes could be a bit rough, by the late 1980s, chemistry, techniques and tooling had improved, and high-quality results could last decades with modest attention. With annual buffing and a coat of wax, I kept my 1989 37-foot Bertram looking like new for 22 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I admit: I once spun the color wheel and changed her boot stripe and feature stripes from black to blue and then back again. It was an expensive lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps, Bill was on to something. Such a change of heart in vinyl would have been far less costly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrapping larger yachts may be the newest new thing but, like vinyl itself, I doubt it will last. Bill doesn\u2019t care; in fact, it seems that he\u2019s prepared to try on colors like pairs of shoes until he finds a good fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat do you really think about green, Coyle? I\u2019m thinking it\u2019s too earthy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I proposed sticking with the new white gelcoat, but Bill insisted on something more fitting for an offshore fishing machine. Maybe indigo blue with a greyhounding marlin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My pal bought a yacht and then engaged in a cover-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":59474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Jay Coyle","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"163","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Jay Coyle ponders the use of gelcoat finishes, as his friend wraps his new 60-foot fishboat to attain his desired color and look.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","sponsored_url":"","social_share":true,"ad_targeting":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true},"categories":[163],"tags":[2023,569,164],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59473"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}