All You Need to Know About Boat Lettering

September 20th , 2007
By Paul Sutton

Every boat needs some witty name plastered to their transom. But to ensure your lettering lasts longer than the novelty of your boat name, you should be aware of the different methods of having your name put on your boat.

Vinyl Lettering

By far, vinyl lettering is the most popular way of people naming their boats. These are essentially high quality decals you stick on your boat. You can either go to a local sign shop and have these done up or purchase them off the internet (read the warning near the end of this section). The cost is normally going to be somewhere in the range of $30-75.

All vinyl lettering will eventually feel the wrath of time and weather and need to be replaced. Although peeling vinyl off your transom is a charming way of spending a Saturday, you want the longest longevity possible. In the world of Vinyl there are a few different grades of vinyl:

Promotional Grade: Quite simply, promotional grade vinyl should not be used in boats! It will be prone to shrinkage and blistering. When you receive the decal it will likely look superb and you’ll go home a happy camper-ahem- boater. In a couple months you won’t be nearly as jolly.

Marine Grade 5 Year Vinyl: A good chunk of boat decaling will be of marine grade 5 year vinyl. As is the rule with all advertising fluff, take the manufacturer’s claims and divide by 2. You can expect somewhere in the range of 2-3 years of life before you can expect to see some serious wear on your lettering.

Engineer Grade 7-8 Year Vinyl: This is generally the grade of vinyl used in highway signs. As expected, there’s a certain degree of durability needed in such applications. This vinyl is generally reflective, which will give your decal a nice gloss to it in day and night. This is, to the best of my knowledge, the highest quality vinyl available. Most shops will have this grade of vinyl available, just be prepared to pay more for it.

The internet, including ebay, has some fantastic deals available. Just make sure you ask what grade of vinyl they use, especially on eBay.

Paint

The classiest way of naming your boat is probably by having it painted. The biggest drawback is of course the price. You can expect to pay somewhere in the range of $100-200. Having a graphic will cost more.

If you’re buying your boat from a dealer, ask them if they have a guy on hand who paints names. The price may be competitive, but most importantly, there’s the convenience factor.

If you’re going to paint the lettering on, have a professional do it! This may seem like nonsense to most, but you wouldn’t believe the number of boats I’ve seen where people have tried to paint their own lettering on. It looks horrible and if you though vinyl was hard to remove, try removing paint.