For many years the assessment of the hull andsuperstructure coating has been based around termssuch as “Super/Mega-yacht standard”.

This article therefore sets out to explore what thismeans and offers some suggestions and a proposal asto how the assessment of yacht finishes can bestandardised and made more objective. The articlefirst considers the current approaches adopted andthen looks at the present work of the ISO standardscommittee and in a future article, a proposal for analternative method which considers both technical andcosmetic aspects, will be proposed.

Introduction Over the last 5-10 years the increasing demand forSuper-yachts (Mega-yachts) has seen substantialdemand being placed on yacht builders andmaintenance facilities around the world but inparticular Europe. The resulting facilities and skillsshortages have led to a considerable number of newentrants into the market place for new build andmaintenance work. In addition both owners and yardshave increased demand for coating inspection/advice.

The coating work is generally focussed on threeseparate activities, new build application; crewmaintenance and wash down, and regular re-

coating at designated repair/overhaul intervals,and due to the range of capabilities at new buildand repair and maintenance, this results in manySuper-yachts suffering from coating problems ofone form or another.

Our studies (1) have shown that typically faultsin coating work can be broken down into a numberof categories:

• Poor vessel design• Poor product selection• Poor product• Poor management processes• Poor preparation/application• Poor maintenance• Poor repair• Poor climate/environment control• Poor worker skill

Not all of these are in the control of one entity infact the designer, the yard, the owner, the paintsupplier, the contractor, the paint inspector, the crewand the maintenance facility all contribute in oneway or another to either the success or poorperformance of the coating resulting in a failure toreach Super-yacht standards.

16 PCE JULY–SEPTEMBER 200916

Analysis

AssessingDr Raouf Kattan, Safinah Ltd., Morpeth, UK

One of the most important elements of a mega-yacht is its

visual impact. A large part of this impact is attributable to the

appearance of the final coating finish of the external hull.

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Yacht Coatings

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17PCE JULY–SEPTEMBER 2009

Before discussing possible solutions for Super-yachtsthere is perhaps a need to discuss what makes asurface appear visually pleasing.

Visual Appearance of SurfacesThe appearance of a surface can be characterised bya number of factors and these are summarised inFigure 1.

Quality of visual appearance is ultimately dictatedby the uniformity of the surface that is being observed,and this can be split into surface effects and reflectedimage effects. The question though is to what standardhas that uniformity to be achieved.

It is not the intent of this paper to discuss all thefactors that influence the appearance of a surface, buta few simple examples may help the reader tounderstand some of the key issues involved.

Examples of some surface effects and reflectedimage effects and how they can interact are shown inFigures 2 and 3 below.

A surface of uniform appearance is thus one wherethe values of the elements that make up appearanceare consistent over the whole surface. This may beeasy to achieve over small areas such as a car body

panel but is not so easy on a yacht which may be inexcess of 60m in length with surfaces at a variety ofangles from horizontal to vertical and when thesurface may be viewed from close up or at adistance.

Therefore the standard to which the surface isassessed must be defined. The factors that influenceappearance are:

• First time coating or touch up• Substrate type and quality• Orientation of surface• Concave or convex surface• Application process stability• Lighting and environment• Human observer

As noted above, appearance is a function ofwaviness (orange peel effect) and definition ofimage (and colour).

Waviness is itself dictated by the coatingsurface structure and size, and can be Long Wave,Short Wave or a combination of both when areasare repaired.

Appearance can change with observerdistance and lighting conditions or angle, and fora yacht this is a real problem as the need is forboth good long wave and short wavecharacteristics and the lighting conditions canvary considerably during a given 24hr period letalone the build time of the yacht.

Resolution of LightThe human eye can resolve longer wavelength lightfrom a distance of about 3m (long wavelength,taken to mean 1mm – 100mm). At shorterdistances, say 40cm, the human eye can resolveshorter wavelengths of the order 0.1mm – 30mm.(When the wavelength of the light is below 0.1mm,then the measure becomes one of dullness ratherthan brilliance).

The eye of course processes all this information,while the use of instruments allows the wavelengths

Figure 1 Surface Appearance

Figure 2 Focus on surface. Waviness(short and long waves)

Figure 3 Focus on reflected image. Definition ofImage (DOI) and contrast

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18 PCE JULY–SEPTEMBER 2009

received to be analysed and categorised in differentbands (typically 5 band widths from short to long seeFigure 4). Instruments also allow for a consistentinterpretation of the surface in an objective manner.

The profile of surface can be analysed and thereforedifferences in appearance quantified (Figure 5). Thus ifa surface can be judged by an owner or a yard asacceptable in appearance it can be subjected to somemeasurements that would enable a profile of it to bebuilt up. It is of course not quite a simple as this, butthe overview serves to illustrate the point, thatprofiling could offer a solution and it is one that isused in the motor industry.

Metallic PaintsIn a continuous drive to be different and to innovate,both designers and owners are often looking forelements of uniqueness for their design/yacht. Interms of coatings this can mean darker colours (bluesand greys), even matt finishes as opposed to highgloss. However increasingly owners are asking formetallic paint either in part or in total for the yacht.

These products work by changing the reflectedlight angle using a combination of, absorptionpigments, interference pigments or metallic pigments.The way in which these pigments are introduced intothe paint formulation enables them to combine togive the desired effect.

The introduction of metallic paint would impact ofcourse and add to the factors that influenceappearance by the introduction of concepts such asgraininess and sparkle.

For metallic paints, light conditions become evenmore critical and for some even the angle of viewingcan be critical.

Super-yacht StandardsWhat is an acceptable Super-yachtappearance standard for coating finishes? At the present time, it can be argued that a Super-yacht appearance standard is whatever the ownersrepresentative is willing to accept or what the yardis able to sell, within the cost and time budgets ofthe project.

Consequently, the standard can be open tosubjective decision-making and opinion, with anultimate compromise often based on attrition of oneparty or another.

In the field there are a number of methods bywhich owners/yards attempt to agree on therequired Super-yacht standard for a particularproject. The following methods/techniques arepredominantly in use:

• Subjective assessment by eye based ona 3rd party assessment

• Use of reference panels/mock ups• Photographic referencing• Basic measurements• Use of measured reference vessels

The fact that a problem exists is reflected by aproposed ISO standard [3], which will apply tonon-metallic coatings.

Figure 4 Separation of wavelengths into 5 ranges.

Figure 5 Surface appearance profiling

However it is not only the presence of long and shortwavelengths that influence appearance. The ratio inwhich they appear can have considerable impact on theappearance as can other factors such as, contrast,sharpness and definition of image.

The structure of the coating can influence thedefinition of image. If the structure scatters light thenthis can reduce contrast, while smaller structures cancause distortion of the outlines of the image.

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Each of these approaches has its strengths andweaknesses and all are in regular use. The best wayto assess them would be to compare their needs tothose as laid out in the proposed ISO standard. Thiswill identify strengths and weaknesses in the currentapproach and the limitation of the ISO standard.

Assessing coatingsThere are number of issues to consider in assessingcoatings. The most important of these are, the methodof measurement and definition of acceptablemeasured values, cosmetic appearance, and thecolour and type of coating (e.g. light vs. dark colours,metallic and non-metallic). In addition the experienceof the assessor plays an important part, as do theexpectations of owner and capability of theyard/contractor.

In an attempt to minimise the variability, then anumber of options try to establish benchmarks in oneform or another making reference to measured valuesor optical references (e.g. mock ups, reference vessels,photographs).

Measured ValuesPaint standards

One noteworthy attempt has been made to try anddefine some standards [2]. In this paper a veryimportant distinction was made between, TechnicalQuality, ie the measurable attributes of theapplication, as distinct from Cosmetic Quality(appearance) of the application.

Technical Quality is objective and can be properlyassessed and measured. In simple terms TechnicalQuality can be answered by a positive response tothe questions:

• Was the scheme applied in accordance to themanufacturers guidelines?

• Was the scheme specified using a functional paintspecification approach?

These two elements together create a TQI (TechnicalQuality Index).

If the answer is negative then the failings in

Technical Quality, may or may not manifestthemselves in the assessment of Cosmetic Quality (ifthey do not, which sometimes is the case, then adecision has to be made as to the acceptability of thefinal result, Technical Quality not withstanding).

For example Technical Quality can be poor incontrol of dry film thickness with either too high a dftor too low a dft. To what extent that may show in thecosmetic appearance will vary and to what extent inmay impact on the in service performance of thecoating (eg dft can influence the life of the finish)could be evaluated and may prove to be negligible insome cases.

Technical Quality should be defined in the form ofa Functional Paint specification. This is a specificationthat takes into account the build process, the toolsand techniques available and the in serviceperformance requirements. Regrettably, all to often ageneric paint specification is developed that enableslittle assessment on the technical merit of the variousoptions and often results in a decision based on price,rumour of past successes or failures, without a realsound basis for performance.

As Technical Quality can be well defined (that isnot to say it always is), this article will not discuss themake up of the TQI, but it cannot be ignored in afinal assessment of the yacht coatings.

The focus is rather on the Cosmetic quality(Cosmetic Quality Index – CQI), in the form ofquestions such as:

• Does it look acceptable?• Is it as good as the last yacht?• Is the owner happy with it?

Reference 2 correctly identified that many of theseissues are subjective and difficult to measure andidentified the following visual aspects, gloss, fairness(smoothness of surface), dustfall (dust particles thatcan be trapped on the surface) and surface texture.

The paper (Ref 2) argued that these are thefactors that most influenced the optical cosmeticquality of the finish and went further to quantifythem, and the findings can be summarised in the

Cosmetic standard for Super Yachts

Property Suggested min/max value Method Next step

Gloss 90% at 600 (vertical)87% at 600(horizontal) Gloss meter n.a

Dust Max 8 particles per sq decimetre,max 0.3mm diameter per particle. Visual microscope n.a.

Surface texture Reference panel Visual comparison Electronic mapping

Fairness To be judged through application ofshow coat Visual judgement Electronic mapping

Sags/runs Not allowed unless consideredacceptable by owners rep.

Analysis

22 PCE JULY–SEPTEMBER 2009

following table which was put forward as a proposal tothe industry in the conclusion of the paper.

ISO draft standard TC 8/SC 12The draft standard entitled Large Yachts – Coatings –Measurement and analysis of the visual appearance(Ref 3). Identifies the following cosmetic issues; gloss,colour difference, appearance, fairness, othersuperficial defects, gel coat defects, and film thickness.

In doing so it references other appropriate ISOstandards and sets out some useful terms anddefinitions to ensure that everyone involved speaks thesame language.Immediately it can be seen that the list of factors thatimpact on appearance has increased and it isinteresting that an item of Technical Quality hasemerged on the list, namely film thickness. This wouldappear then to confuse Cosmetic Quality issues withTechnical Quality issues.

In reviewing the draft then the followingobservations can be made:

• Gloss to be measured using a gloss meter• Colour difference to be measured using a

spectrometer• Appearance (orange peel) DOI, to be assessed using

a wave scan.

Work is still on going to cover the other aspectsidentified above.

Other available technologiesWith the advent of laser scanning (Ref 4), then theissue of fairness control could be developed in anobjective format without the reliance of a subjectivejudgement based on observations on a show coat,or possibly the use of a metal coupon.

Improved fairing should help improve the TQI andthe CQI to enhance overall appearance and reducefiller consumption and make the process easier.

Thus there are strides being made across manyaspects of the Cosmetic Quality issues to remove thesubjective element, with a view of making theprocesses more objective.

The reality however, is that even if the TechnicalQuality Index is correct and the measurableelements of the Cosmetic Quality Index are correct

and in accordance with measurements, the resultsmay not look pleasing to the eye.

This would imply that more work needs to bedone to better define the standards so that theobjective values agreed at the start of a contract doalign with the subjective requirements in terms ofCosmetic Quality.

Once that is done, then a profile of the acceptablevalues of TQI and CQI could be developed for anyyacht project.

ConclusionsA working standard for yacht finishes remains elusive,although previous proposals and the ISO draft text go along way toward quantifying some key elements, therehas not been a method proposed onto which theTechnical and Cosmetic aspects of a finish for a Super-yacht can judged against in a consistent manner.

A future article will set out a proposal for the CQIformat, and the TQI would follow a similar format.

Perhaps beauty will always remain in the eye of thebeholder, but it may be possible to define that beautyon a project-by-project basis and give all parties anopportunity to work to an agreed standard.

AcknowledgementsThe author would like to thank his colleagues atSafinah for their invaluable assistance in developingthis paper and for challenging all assumptions made.Thank are also extended to Sheen instruments forpermission to use many of the images in this paper.

References1. Safinah Ltd Coating Audits internal reports 2000-20082. Paint Standards an industry proposal, J Ellenbroek,

The Yacht Report 20023. ISO/TC 8/SC 12 N 004, Large Yachts – Coatings –

Measurement and analysis of the visual appearance[WI 12.02], Dec 2007.

4. Accuracy control for the final finish of mega-yachts,Wanner, M.-C.; Kunkel, J. Quelle Schiffbauforschung46 (2007), Nr.1, S.64-73 ISSN: 0036-6056

Editor’s NoteThis article is an edited version of a presentation givenat “Design, Construction & Operation of Super andMega Yachts” conference, 1 – 2 April, 2009, Genoa,Italy, and is published with the permission of theOrganisers, The Royal Institution of Naval Architects.

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