Heading to Key West, Fla., today to cover the Super Boat International Offshore World Championships and the Florida Powerboat Club’s signature poker run as I have more times than I can remember, I know I soon will be surrounded by a sea of color. And I’m not just talking about the fascinating and often quirky locals and tourists in the city at the end of the road. I’m talking about the high-performance powerboats that will be found at various docks in Key West Harbor for much of the week.

Sometimes the absence of color on a catamaran or V-bottom is truly beautiful. Photo courtesy/copyright Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

Let’s be honest: Most high-performance powerboat owners aren’t shy when it comes to coloring their rides. That doesn’t mean the work of go-fast boat graphics hotshots such as Dean Loucks of The Art Of Design, Mark Morris of Visual Imagination, Stephen Miles of Stephen Miles Design and Chris Mills of Boat Customs is anything less than stellar. But it’s fair to say that their clients are more likely to go over-the-top than understated when it comes to color.

For the record, I like over the top. I just don’t like it all the time. So now and then, a simple white boat can be simply spectacular. That they tend to be few and far between in the high-performance world makes them that much more compelling.

Read more: In Simple Praise Of Plain White Boats