Vinyl Lettering

Part of The Underway Gourmet by Suzy O'Keefe

Having a hard time deciding what size/color vinyl lettering to use for the name of your boat?

One way to get a general idea is with a roll of wax paper and couple of marking pens. You can simulate the size & color, even in white if you use a white-out pen. Copy the letter style you like onto the wax paper using your best freehand or go all out & use a ruler, but either way, you'll have a pretty good idea how the real thing will look before you place your order and spend your money.

Already have vinyl lettering that you need to remove first?

Vinyl letters hold up very well out in the elements, so much so that they can be a pain to remove. A hair dryer can be used (carefully) to melt and loosen the adhesive of vinyl letters applied to the hull. Use your fingernail to start a corner and aim the heat on the part of the letter you are about to peel off (not the underside). Don't be impatient and don't use too high a heat setting... you won't risk bubbling any paint, varnish or burning your fingers! Any remaining residue can be removed with acetone or one of the commercial products sold for such purposes. Read the label before deciding which to use on your boat. A method that works well when using acetone is to use two cloths - a "wet" one for applying the acetone and a "dry" one for briskly rubbing the residue. Alternate between the two cloths in this fashion for each bit of residue... wet, dry, then wet again. The final wet application removes the all the sticky bits that were smeared around by the dry rub. As an example of how much time the entire above process takes, I removed 8 six inch letters with a 1200 watt hair dryer and removed the sticky residue in less than an hour & a half. The process can go even faster if one person wields the hair dryer while the other tackles the letters.