Old paint colors

[jaguarv12]

While spending the Covid winter redoing / revamping my '84 CD 31 I need to repaint underside of cockpit lockers / also lockers themselves. Does anyone know what were the original colors were and or what would be a reasonable replacement ?
Thanks in advance
Jim

[tjr818]

Read an article in one of the sailing magazines where the writer thought that the cockpit lockers were usually dull, dreary places, so he painted the lockers on his boat bright vivid colors. I did that on a previous boat and painted the inside of locker lid a very bright yellow. There is no need for keeping these original.

[Paul D.]

I agree and frankly, to make it easier to find things in low light I would use a lighter color like an Interlux Brightside off white, or Blu-Glo White or something. Or just their Bilgekote or TotalBoat Total Bilge, but the latter is an epoxy paint, so consider that. I know others use a Rustoleum product but I have no experience with it.

[Walter Hobbs]

Agree with Total Boat bilge paint. My '77 CD 27 looks like original color was light blue.
However the new white paint really brightened everything up. My younger son applied a lot of it because I am not small enough or flexible enough to get to all areas.
Now easier to follow hoses and wiring. Also can find items dropped in the neither regions of the bilge.

[atcowboy]

I agree and frankly, to make it easier to find things in low light I would use a lighter color like an Interlux Brightside off white, or Blu-Glo White or something. Or just their Bilgekote or TotalBoat Total Bilge, but the latter is an epoxy paint, so consider that. I know others use a Rustoleum product but I have no experience with it.

According to my surveyor, the "raw" fiberglass on all CD boats was a baby pastel blue. So bilge, lazarette, lockers, etc. Anything not gelcoat.

Last winter I made a Chameleon sailing dingy and I painted it with Wet Edge Blu-Glo from TotalBoat. I would describe the experience somewhere between terrible and aweful. It has a wet-edge time of .25 to .5 seconds, but it takes forever to dry, doesn't sand well, doesn't cover well (even over white primer), and smells terrible. My first can came with 1/4" of skin on the top, and my replacement was like syrup. I don't know what the consistency is supposed to be (as designed) but I had to thin it A LOT. I was eventually able to get a smooth white finish on the hull of the boat (roll and tip) but if you don't paint it on in the thinnest of coats, it is forever gum. Even then, it never gets hard. I mean never. Just slightly less gum. It doesn't chip off if you hit it, it bunches up and tears away like wet news paper. But it is white! Except when it isn't. The chameleon has 3 compartments for buoyancy and the blu-glo turned amber colored in all of them. My best guess is the solvent flashing off stayed concentrated in these smallish compartments. So if you are masochistic enough to use this product in your lockers, you might want to try venting the compartment for the 3 days it will take each coat to dry.

The blue paint in my CD27 is holding up OK, but it has mold in the grooves (like everything on the boat). Last year I spent a lot of time in my lockers with a spray bottle and paper towels. I'd love to be able to scrub the whole mess with a ton of fresh water and probably dish soap and let the bilge pump the whole mess out. I think I would stay with a pastel color, maybe yellow. Although bright yellow could be nice too.

- AT

[John Stone]

Your surveyor is mistaken. The inside lockers and underside of the decks on my boat were painted a bamboo or khaki like tan. When I rebuilt my boat I painted all the bilge areas and cockpit lockers and underside of deck with grey Interlux bilgekote. Great paint. Easy to use. Most coverage is one coat. It’s tough paint but easy to touch up. White Bilge Kote tends to yellow a bit over time.

[fmueller]

Me too John, grey bilgecoat... that yellowish tan color was really ugly with age ... the grey is light enough to see items but hides the eventual grime a bit. ... except painted the engine pan white as well as the actual bilge so you can spot every little thing ... also, surface prep matters even in the lockers. So they were scrubbed and then acetone wipe down.

[Cathy Monaghan]

We painted the insides of lockers and storage areas on our CD32 with Rustoleum back in 2006. I think the color was almond. Any light color would do. It has held up quite well.

- Cathy Monaghan
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

[Steve Laume]

I used white Rustolium for the lockers and all the plywood under the cushions. It has held up very well everywhere but the anchor locker where I had significant peeling that was probably a preparation issue. It did yellow a little in the lockers after many years so I gave it another coat and it looks fine again. I am all for keeping our boats fairly original but paint color in the lockers is not something I would worry about.

Raven's lockers were, originally, a sort of pinkish tan, Steve.

[jaguarv12]

Thanks to all for replies and ideas.
In keeping with my efforts to keep things sort of original (kind of hard when your the umpteenth owner after 37 years) I went with Interlux Hatteras off white with about 30% flattening agent. The flattening agent knocks down a little of the extreme gloss, while it may reduce abrasion resistance a little, I don't plan on spending much time roaming around the lockers.

[sanderling]

I found Interlux Grand Banks Beige to be a close match to the khaki color of internal locker spaces on both my CDs. If you want to match those CD beige tones perfectly, as I did when I redid my cockpit sole on my 33 and had to paint the nonskid, I found mixing different ratios of Interlux Bristol Beige with their Grand Banks Beige was exactly right. The ratio was 75 Bristol/25 Grand Banks for my (faded) decks.

But I also really like the light blue that many use for lockers/decks. That's pretty.

Mike
S/V Sanderling
CD 33 Sloop
Rhode Island