> 1) Paint it yellow w/black detail strip along sheer.

> Drawback: no wood showing.

> 2) Bright finish it with lots o' layers of lovingly applied varnish and a
> black detail strip along sheer.

> 3) Yellow stripe(s) (about 6" to 1' wide) with bright finishing
> everywhere else.

> 3a) We were thinking about a wide stripe either in a spiral from the bow
> to stern or two symetric spirals that begin joined at the bow, cross each
> other in the center of the deck and on the keel, and rejoin at the keel.
> Tough to describe...

> 3b) A pair of stripes which begin as one at the point of the bow deck,
> curve around the cockpit with the bottom edge of the stripe dipping below
> the waterline and rejoin at the point on the stern deck (this would leave
> wood visible around the cockpit and below the stripe on the bow and stern,
> I've seen deck stripping patterns that look like we're imagining).

> Drawback: We have to form a smooth boundry for the stripe and mask it off,
> then perform the magic necessary to get a smooth edge as we remove the
> masking. If we do the single spiral, she'd have to learn to roll. ;-)

> Questions and Issues:

> What do you think of the options (or are my descriptions so confusing that
> you can't even begin to picture what I'm talking about)?

> I guess
> that we can get a lead oxide that will produce a yellow color. We'd also
> have to varnish over it since the colored epoxy will still need UV
> protection.

> I know that I asked about paint before, but we are also interested in the
> possibility of using a yellow paint (anything that will stick without a
> primer and does not require baking).

A sketch of what you propose would get a lot more comments. personnally, I'm having a hard time visualizing this, but as for plan :

1) you would see wood in the cockpit and on the coaming. why not do the hull in yellow and leave the deck in a bright finish?

2). The black would hardly show. You could give it a surrounding edge of yellow.

3) a 1 foot wide sripe on a 2 foot wide boat leaves about 6 inches on each side that are not "striped" That is a pretty wide stripe! Send a sketch.

3B) Yes, you would have a problem masking this, but it would look nice when it was finished.

You sound like you are sold on yellow, but why go with a pigment that has a lead base? Eventually you are going to have to sand this, and sanding lead based pigments is not healthy. Plenty of other non-lead based pigments that are yellow.

A polyurethane should stick well without a primer, and won't need an extra coat of varnish for UV protection, so the color will stay true, and not be yellowed further by the covering of varnish.

Hope this helps.

Paul G. Jacobson