Transom Project Complete

Please welcome new contributors Nate & Jenn, newly moved aboard (August, 2014)  their first boat, the 36-foot Allied Princess s/v Aletheia.  Since moving aboard, they have already cruised from Halifax, Nova Scotia down to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla - not bad for less than a year aboard!  And one of the first things new boat owners do is change the lettering on the transom...

We did something cool and fun this morning aboard Aletheia...we gave her an official hailing port on her transom. On top of the two previous owners' hailing ports: Florida, USA and Portland, lays Denver CO!

We scoured local craft and hardware stores all over the East Coast only to find 3-inch letters that come individually and this likely would have been a bigger project trying to match each letter, evenly spaced, to my OCD-perfection. After asking the Universe for where to look next, a fellow blogger at TheBoatGalley.com suggested  DoItYourselfLettering.com. Winner! After just a few minutes on the website, t'was a no brainer. Customization out the wazoo, with hundreds of fonts, more than a dozen colors, sizes and several grades of vinyl, depending on your specific needs. 

Before beginning such a project, we checked the requirements for US Coast Guard Documented vessels. According to the USCG, the required letter height on a recreational vessel needs to be at least 4" tall. DoItYourSelfLettering had everything we needed, and we ordered it from the boat! No more traipsing around!

Since we only need a hailing port, we matched the font as best we could with her name. It costs $20, shipping included. Other signage companies can easily charge upright of $75-100 for similar apply-it-yourself lettering. 

Denver, CO came in one long piece with easy, detailed installation instructions - fairly foolproof. They even guarantee "anyone" can install the lettering and if there are any problems with the installation, they will send a replacement at no cost. I'll admit I was a bit nervous, but we walked through our installation process a few times and it came out great! No need to request a replacement! Thank you DoItYourselfLettering for making me feel like a pro!

I highly recommend this company both for personal and professional projects.

Here are some pics of our install:

Step 1: Green tape applied as a "hinge" to set the location of the name

Step 2: Remove the backing off the label

Step 3: Pull taut and adhere to the surface, scraping the overlay to remove any air bubbles 

Fine-tuning

Since we have drainage holes on the transom, we cut around to make sure the surface area is flat. So far, so good! 

It's working!

Complete Success in about 10 minutes!

That's one less project from the to-do list. 

Love to all,
Nate & Jenn