What if your boat wasn’t white?

It’s the standard, sure. But what if it didn’t have to be? Colour is quickly becoming a powerful part of modern boat design — and rejuvenation of your older boat. Owners are stepping away from default white and choosing to express personality, purpose or presence through something as simple — and as bold — as paint.

I love the burnt orange that New Zealand company Valder have used on their yachts. But would I dare use it on my 50-ft Jeanneau sail boat.

If you’re like me and keen to explore your colour options, but hesitant without seeing what it could look like first, then ALEXSEAL’s Yacht Colour Configurator makes it easier than ever to consider that idea. Whether you use ALEXSEAL or not, this is a tool that allows you to explore your thoughts.

Their Colour Configurator is a fully interactive web-based tool that lets you visualise what your boat could look like in a completely different shade — or in a finely tuned custom combination. It’s fast, intuitive, and loaded with over 120 solid and metallic colours from the full ALEXSEAL palette. Before deciding on a finished look, it might pay to explore the colour range your local marine paint store is able to supply you with, or boat painter is able to provide.

Here’s how the Configurator works.

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First, you select your starting point: the yacht type. You’ve got five options to choose from — Motor Yacht, Sailing Yacht, Picnic Boat, Sportfish or Superyacht — all rendered in photorealistic 3D and positioned on the water to give an accurate sense of how the paint interacts with light and reflections.

From there, you can configure three key exterior zones: hull, superstructure, and bootstripe (that strip running horizontally along the side).

Each area can be coloured independently, giving you total freedom to experiment with contrast, cohesion, or bold visual breaks. Want a silver hull with a black bootstripe and a white superstructure? Done. Prefer something warmer, like rRed with blue highlights? Go for it. You can instantly test combinations, compare variations, and even switch yacht types mid-process if you want to see how the colours play on a different hull form.

All colours are displayed in true digital renderings — not flat swatches — meaning you get to see how they behave across complex surfaces, with curves, shadow lines, and ambient light. The Configurator even includes an optional 3D magnifier tool that lets you zoom in on the interplay of colours and forms at a finer scale.

Because the Configurator is browser-based, there’s nothing to download. Once you’re happy with your design, you can export the configuration as a PDF. That makes it easy to share with your designer, captain, or refit yard when it comes time to take the next step.

It’s a surprisingly powerful tool that turns a high-stakes decision into a creative process. Instead of trying to imagine how a particular shade will look in context — or relying on physical swatches and guesswork — you can see the results on-screen in seconds. It’s not just helpful, it’s confidence-building.

Paint might not be the most complex part of a yacht refit or build — but it’s the most visible. It sets the tone from the first glance. It defines the silhouette. It leaves the lasting impression. So why wouldn’t you want to see exactly how that will look, before the first drop is applied?