Seen this color?

hebert01 · Post by **hebert01** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:30 pm

I came across this boat color while browsing the howard-boats.com site (maker of the "Barnstable Cat", the fiberglass copy of the Beetle Cat). Anyway, I hadn't seen it before, and was curious to know whether it's a custom color they came up with, or if it's listed as a color swatch for Awlgrip or similar. They call the color "Kirby Gray-Green". I figured one of you color fetishists may have come across it in your swatch collecting. :-)

I think it looks pretty good, especially on a small boat with the personality of a Beetle Cat. Wonder how it might look with a white boot stripe on a bigger boat...

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:38 pm

Kirby Gray-Green would be a gray green mixed by the George Kirby Paint company of New Bedford. They still make it the old-fashioned way, and it's good stuff. My dinghy is painted a Kirby blue that I bought as a possible candidate for the triton topsides before I decided on the gunsmoke blue.

I'm sure awlgrip can match it, but that really defeats the point.

hebert01 · Post by **hebert01** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 7:26 pm

Thanks! Sometimes my fingers type without my mind thinking. I had almost forgotten about Kirby paints, and they're right in my backyard. Thanks for setting me straight. :-)

hebert01 · Post by **hebert01** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:20 pm

Funny about Kirby paints...my family didn't have a boat when I was growing up, so I never had a "marine" context for Kirby paints (even though they're a marine paint company). But I remember my dad used to use it to paint our wooden floors. I remember him telling me the stuff was tough as nails.

Is your dinghy fiberglass? What did you use as a primer?

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:31 pm

fiberglass yes (epoxy), but I forget what's under the kirby. Probably some ordinary latex house paint. Possibly interlux brightsides, but I doubt it.