Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.
I am about ready to order Port and Starboard lettering for a new name and have 2 needs:
1. A good and reasonable vinyl lettering company recommendation - there are a LOT of them out there!
2. A recommended height and width for the name for my 1985 C25. The name is going to be "Sailvation". Does 4" height sound right? Thanks Dennis in Sarasota
Many here have used these people, I myself. If your a member of the Association you can get a 20% discount from them.http://www.greatlettering.com/ As far as size that's really up to you and how bold you want the lettering to be. 4" is very small ( mine are 8"). I suggest taking a walk around a marina with a ruler and measure other boats and see what you would like. Keep in mine that the letter size is from the very top of the highest letter to the very bottom of the lowest letter. In my case from the top of the 'L' to the bottom of the 'P' spans 8"
For my C25 and for my current boat I used BoatUS graphics. You can play around with their design function and add colors, shapes and effects till you're satisfied.
I think 4" letters might be a bit small. I "think" the letters on my C25 were 7" tall and about 38" long. On my Gemini the letters are 9" tall and the length is 55". And as an example my hailing port letters are 3.25" tall.
If I am remembering correctly, the "O" below was ~9" tall. I printed out the name in 27+/- different fonts before making a final selection
As for vendors, there seems to be one on every street corner these days. You might look for one that deals with boat lettering as they may be more likely to carry a larger selection UV or fade resistant vinyl.
I used 6 inch letters and wish I had gotten 8 inch because of the top of letter to the bottom of some letters. I believe you about how long you can play around with the different fonts.
You bring up a good point regarding size of lettering. A good boat graphics dept will work with the customer to ensure the lettering is of proper sizing. I recall when I was considering size and font, the thinking at the time was the bigger the font size the better - Many undersize the lettering. It is best to view font size on other boats and then determine what size lettering seems sufficient so that your boat name can be read from someone standing a good distance away from the boat (So that others can read your boat name while sailing.)
I recall using Boat US Graphics online program to select the font, color, size and spacing. After I ordered the lettering, I recall their Graphics Dept calling me to ensure that I was aware that the font I ordered had unusually long tails to some of the capital letters and so picking out an 8" font, for example, the "R" and the "N" in "Robin's Nest" would each actually be about 12" in height and not 8". The overall length via the online program was something like 54" ! They indicated the length could be shortened a bit even going with the same font size and still look satisfactory.....and so we experimented with some spacing that was not per the online program.
The result was that I did go with the font with some of the letters well over the font size but adjusted the spacing making the overall length a bit shorter than my original order. Also, thru the years, I had smudged one or two letters while docking and so I went down to their Graphics Dept (located not from me) and they cut me for free some matl (metallic Blue) to use for minor letter fixings.
Photo below was taken about 2 years ago when my blister repair job was completed: (Un fortunately, photo is a bit oversized but shows the lettering pretty good.)
These graphics are easy to make yourself if you know anyone with a computer controlled cutter. They are popular among the crafty/scrapbooking set. Silhouette and Cricut are two popular brands.
I bought my own (a Silhouette Cameo) and have found it to be fairly useful to own. It was around $200, so not cheap enough if you'll only ever make one set of boat graphics, but worth it if you have other uses.
Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ. The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.