posted 01-13-2004 07:36 PM ET (US)        

I called Whaler today & they told me the boat was light grey & the nonskid sections were desert tan...but on my boat the nonskid decks are the same color as the rest of the hull, contradicting what they told me. My boat appears almost white...it seems whiter than the 70's & 80's whalers I've seen, but that may be my imagination. I can't tell if this was the original color, or if the sun faded it to a lighter shade.

Spectrum gelcoats lists the whaler grey color starting in 1972, and the boats prior to then being whaler white...but I think this must be refferring to the blue interior hulls.

Does anyone know what the original color of my boat was?

Thanks

posted 01-13-2004 08:54 PM ET (US)            

I remember going throught the same scenario with a 1976 13' Whaler I tried to "spiff up" in the 1980s. I purchased the boat new. BW told me the color was Desert Tan. I bought the gelcoat. It didn't match.

I never could match any BW gelcoat colors to the boat, but that never affected the wonderful Whaler performance.

posted 01-14-2004 11:09 AM ET (US)            

Your boat appears almost white because it's bleached out by sunlight over 30+ years.

The original color of exterior hull is "Outrage Grey". Outrage Grey is really an off-white that is so named because it was first used on the new Outrage model when it first appeared in 1970.

Spectrum Color sells this color of gel coat but they call it "Lt. Grey, Boston Whaler, 1972 - 1984".

The exterior of your hull is this color as is the top skin that forms the gunwales and foredeck. The interior portion of your hull (which includes the non-skid) was Desert Tan.

Yes, Desert Tan and Outrage Grey often look the same after many years. Again I believe this is because of bleaching. You may find it necessary to tint the gel coat with some white to lighten it up a bit.

Yo are also correct about Spectrum's listing of "Boston Whaler White" as referring to the blue interior hulls.

Dave,

The color of your 1976 13 footer is Desert Tan for the interior, but the exterior is Outrage Grey. Yes, they look similar, but they are not the same. It is only those model built after 1984 that are Desert Tan on both the interior and exterior.

For a detailed accounting of what colors were used when, see:

posted 01-14-2004 08:15 PM ET (US)            

My boat is the original gelcoat, but it is crazed pretty badly on most of the sections that get a lot of sun. I want to restore it to an original look, and I'm probably going to paint the boat with Awlgrip. (The boat would require re-gelcoating, at least the topsides, to bring it back without paint...which is more work & expense than makes sense in my opinion). But I want to match the paint to the original color scheme, not its current faded color...hence my questions.

Thanks again for the replies.

posted 01-15-2004 01:15 PM ET (US)            

It is possible your boat does not use Desert Tan for its interior gel coat. I cannot conclusively state otherwise as I have no personal experience with patching the gel coat on a 1971 Outrage. But I have always been led to believe that the interior was molded with Desert Tan.

posted 01-15-2004 06:37 PM ET (US)            

The interior & exterior sure look the same, but I'm sure you're right, they are probably different colors. Thanks for the information!

posted 01-15-2004 08:20 PM ET (US)            

The gelcoat color on my 70's Montauk looks the same, interior and exterior, from a few feet away. I read on this site many threads ago that you could see and compare the differences at the green line on top of the transom. Sure enough, because of the close interface of two hull parts, it is clear that the inside is tan and the outside a pale grey. You can't clearly see the contrast where the rubrail separates the two by an inch or more. You could probably see it though if you did a patch with the wrong color, one against the other. I'm not sure that there is a point like that on the '71 Outrage where the two colors can be closely compared.

posted 09-03-2004 05:23 PM ET (US)            

It's my belief that the Desert Tan interior on the Outrage models started in 1973, which I believe is the same year that Desert Tan started on the smaller models.

I thought I would add these comments for future reference if anyone is searching the archives for this info.

posted 09-05-2004 10:45 AM ET (US)            

Thanks to Larry Goltz who has recently restored a 1971 Outrage I learned that the earliest Outrages did not use Desert Tan on the insides of the hulls. To quote Chuck Bennett who corresponded with Larry on the issue:

...hull number 132 was built in our Norwell, MA factory and was originally shipped out on 12/18/70 to the Flying Dutchman Marine in Berlin, CT.

At this time, the 21' Outrages were that very light grey color both
inside and out, topskin and hull.

In 1972 they changed to the Desert Tan interior for the hull with the
light grey topskin and exterior hull.

Spectrum Color's part # for the Light Grey gelcoat is 2204.

In either case, I'd order a tint kit to assist with a better match or you can send a color chip to either vendor and have it tested for a perfect match.

Regards,

Chuck Bennett
Boston Whaler Inc.

What is interesting is that Larry did indeed order Spectrum's #2204 "Lt. Grey" and found that it did not match well at all.

After sending a sample to Spectrum for a match they found that the best color match was achieved using Spectrum's Sea Ray Pearl, #1417A.

posted 09-06-2004 11:57 AM ET (US)            

The closest Awlgrip color match I found (without custom color matching) was "Egg Shell White", which is probably what I'll use.

I find Chuck Bennett's comments on the color change in '72 interesting. One of the people I spoke to on this topic was Frank Kehr, the author of the two Outrage restoration articles in Soundings magazine last Nov & Dec. His boat is a 1972, hull #611, and he is convinced that his boat was all Outrage Grey as well. I would be interested in hearing from anyone with a '72 hull that believes their boat has a Desert Tan interior. The '73 changeover to the smooth sided hull seems to me like a more logical time for BW to have made a color change, and corresponds with the change from blue to Desert Tan I believe.

posted 09-07-2004 01:42 PM ET (US)            

I've got hull no. 00185 and I believe our boat has spent most of it's life up here in the great white north (Ontario, Canada). The gelcoat is original on our boat and I'm also pretty convinced that the inside and outside are the same colour (off white).

posted 09-07-2004 09:12 PM ET (US)         

So RIGHT NOW, the hull sample is back at Spectrum, where they will mix up a custom batch of gelcoat, promised to match, for $165 plus shipping. They will only do custom colors in gallon amounts, but will package it separately in qt cans, including a qt of paste formula if wanted. This is what I am having done. SO IF YOU NEED ORIGINAL COLOR GELCOAT FOR A 1971-1972 21 OUTRAGE, now is your chance. Contact DANNI out there, and I'm sure you can piggy back on my order, or maybe increase the size of my order, which we can split up. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly how much I am going to need, but a gallon sounds like too much. I do need to have a section of the bow professionally sprayed. These ribbed sided hulls were made in serial numbers 001-722, and the interior color is the same as the exterior. I sent them an original hull cutout, from the transom area, and never faded out by the sun. It has become apparent that Boston Whaler has no remaining record of the correct color of this hull, and have furnished the WRONG information to Spectrum. Spectrum will not now put it into their catalog as standard '71-72 Outrage color, unless they receive the information from Boston Whaler, kind of a catch-22 situation. My hull cut-out, complete with the serial number on it, is not enough to satisfy them! All of this seems highly ridiculous to me, but that's the way it is. They also said for future orders, they will have this order # on file for me, so I can order additional gallon (minimum) quantities from them. What a deal.