Choose Lettering For Your Boat

If you buy a boat, you are likely to make naming your boat and adorning the transom with the boat lettering name of your choice. Why not make it a safety device as well?

Steps

  1. There are many grades of adhesive vinyl letters available. Your best choice would be a premium outdoor grade with a rating of 7 years or more. Don't be mislead by vendors selling cheap "promotional vinyl" on the various re-seller places on the internet. 7 year vinyl is substantially more expensive than 60 day banner vinyl. With vinyl boat lettering, you get what you pay for.
  2. You can purchase individual letters from an office supply store. You will have to hand lay your own letters and there will be few choices to spice up the style or color of your boat name lettering. A better choice would be to order your boat lettering decals online or at a local vinyl fabricator.
  3. You can add a remarkable level of night safety if you order your boat lettering in reflective boat lettering decals. There are a number of companies that sell custom reflective boat lettering decals. There are even places online whereby you can design your boat lettering online and see the results before ordering.
  4. Installation of a custom made boat lettering decal can be a tricky event. Several of the manufacturers recommend a wet method of boat lettering installation. One vendor, Streetglo Reflective Decals has an online video showing the wet method of installation ( http://www.streetglo.net/boat-lettering.html ). Click on the camcorder to see the actual video showing the wet procedure to install boat lettering decals. There is also a link at Streetglo to an online boat lettering decal design tool that lets you design and save your boat lettering decal project. This nifty utility will save your boat lettering design and display it on the transom of a typical boat.
  5. Picking a name for your boat is easy with the thousands of suggestions available on the internet. Search for "boat names" on Google and you will be presented with a large number of boat name links to begin the process of choosing your boat name.

Tips

  • A good layout and measurement is the only way you can massage the letters to look like a professional would install.
  • If you buy your boat numbers cut straight and try to install them on the bow of the boat. hey will appear curved down - like a frown because the bow is curved in and up.
  • In order to lay on perfect numbers on the bow of a boat you need to tack some "butcher" paper to the bow with masking tape. Sketch the lines of the boat hull onto the paper.
  • When you remove the butcher paper and lay it on a flat table you will see that the lines are curved up (when viewing the port side). Make sure the vinyl lettering dude distorts the numbers to match your legend line. Repeat the procedure for the starboard side. You cannot use the same straight cut numbers on both the port and starboard bow and have them look professional.

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References

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