[Scott]

George
I'm not a painter ... but have been told many a time dark colors in general are the hardest colors to work with. If the fairing job is not perfect you will see every imperfection in the hull. Dark Gelcoat will show the oxidation much faster and end up looking like garbage. PLUS I've heard dark is undesirable in warm locations due to the amount of heat it absorbs which can in turn damage the fiberglass. (I don’t know if this is true for a boat that is many years old and has been weathered)
I would also be inclined to think that a dark gelcoat would take a lot of work to buff it up after all the sanding that will be needed to fair it out after its application .... to get that "wet look"....Lighter colors / white are more forgiving. I will say dark colors do look awesome when done properly.

Food for thought
A boat up here was recently painted (professionally) a dark green. While the painter thought it was faired and prepared properly, after it was painted the old name, which was thought to have been properly and fully removed, came through the new paint job, you could read the name perfectly ...also evident was "print through" from the fiberglass woven roven layup ...you could see the weave in the fiberglass!!! [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] It had to be completely redone !!!! [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]