Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Why Herbie won't be red - and other choices

Many thanks to all of you who sent in comments on the colour schemes,. Much appreciated although as you will see if you read the comments, there is no consensus. Still, it shows that whatever we choose, someone will like it :-).


Vally P would like red, and in many ways so would I, but there is a problem with large areas of red paint, which is that it doesn't cover as well as other colours. Apparently the red pigment for paints is more toxic than other colours and the EC places a limit on the amount of this in a given quantity of paint. Not only does it not cover so well it is also prone to fading or leeching out. You may remember our Richard's red boat which has faded like this.

I like red on a boat and I will have some, but not a whole side.

Another thing I won't be having is scumbling - that wood effect produced by combing a dark brown paint over a light brown. When we first hired boats about twenty years ago, it seemed to be all the rage, then the fashion seemed to go away, but on our summer cruise this year we noticed quite a few boats with scumbled borders. Maybe it's coming back again, but not on Herbie!

My pictures of the colour schemes were a bit small so you may not have been able to decipher the signwriting underneath the word HERBIE. It says GRAND UNION CANAL. I do want some more writing other than the boat name, but I'm not sure what yet. Ideas welcome.

6 comments:

Vallypee said...

I vaguely remember you saying something about red now on a much earlier post. But truly, all the combinations you showed us look very classy.

As for the lettering, and since your boat is called Herbie, my suggestion is : Carriers to life's finer spices

...or something along those lines

Amy said...

I agree about red. I would never paint any large patches in that colour. Especially not on a roof! We just had to take our entire roof back to bare metal because the red paint had so badly deteriorated!

Neil Corbett said...

Ahh I misinterpreted you Vally. When you said you preferred the darker read throughout, I thought you meant over all the boat. Apologies.

Vallypee said...

Yes, I just meant the signage would look nice the same red as the trim, but it doesn't matter, Neil. It was interesting to be reminded about the problems with red paint which Amy has confirmed. Useful for me too! Just as a point of interest, my own barge is mostly green with red trim, and everyone here keeps telling me I;m trying to turn it into a narrow boat ;-)

jonali said...

Our boat is very much like no. 3 and I love the traditional red and green but now you have me worried since our whole roof is red. It does look very deep and even though and it is my favourite colour. I will be on the lookout for deterioration though.
Ali NB Tormentil

Simon said...

ha - finally I get to be useful, if only to serve as a bad example... ;-)