Last season we decided to change the color scheme of our boat from blue with red accents to gray.  A more modern and sleek color.  We converted a few things with the purchase of new canvas (sail bag, cockpit enclosure, dinghy chaps, cushions), and sails but we had to tackle the vinyl stickers.  We have loads of stickers on the boat.  Our “Sugar Shack” logo is on each bow and the port stern, our home port is on the starboard stern, Catana has 3 logos and we have 3 stripes that run along the 47′ of both the inside and outside of each hull.

It all had to come off!  We hired Vital Signs to recreate our new graphics.  Wayne came to visit us immediately after we were hauled out.  He showed us how to properly remove the stickers and adhesive.  Of course he made it look easy with the right tools.

Then Matt and I jump into the process.  It is a very painstaking process that requires tons of patience (which I have none), finger nails (gone), and proper tools (nope don’t have these either).  The first photo shows several of the vinyl stickers (Sugar Shack, red line, blue line, world, and boot strap blue line).  I use a small exacto knife blade to get under the 23 year old baked on stickers.

We use every method at our disposal, climbing ladders and platforms, hanging upside down, and sitting cross ways.

It was so sad to depersonalize our boat…

Then Came the Hard Part

As if getting the actual old vinyl stickers off the boat wasn’t difficult enough you had to go back and remove every spec of the adhesive!

This tested every bit of patience in my body!

The top photo shows the left over adhesive after the sticker stripe was removed.   But even if you cannot feel the adhesive on the boat it still remains!  Check out the bottom photo where you can barely see a light discoloration indicating residue.

Patience, loads of turpentine, lots of exacto blades later proved more successful.

After 5 days of scraping, moaning, and complaining, the boat is ready to be “cut” (or washed with an abrasive product) which will prepare the hull for polish and will remove any remaining adhesive.

The Design

We decided to make some changes to our vinyl graphics.  Instead of a small red stripe above the windows and a large blue stripe at the window line we are going to replace them both with just one larger gray stripe.  Instead of a large blue stripe and a small red one at the waterline we will replace them with one large gray stripe.  We will then replace the small “Catana World” logo with a logo Matt designed.

Because we have “Sugar Shack” on the stack pack (sail bag) and we have it on the stern we decided we did not need a huge logo at the top of the bows.  So, we incorporated it into the world which now represents more of the Pacific and the areas where we have sailed.

We head to Wayne’s office where he shows us a mock up of our design.  Now…you have to use your creative “eyes” as he takes an old photo with the old vinyl and overlays the new.  You can tell this is an old photo (maybe 3-4 years) as the bottom paint is red and the sail bag is blue.  Now our sailbag is gray and the bottom paint is black.

The Application

Wayne returns for 1.5 days to adhere all of our graphics.  We decided on 3m slate gray to match our canvas.  He is meticulous, effecient, and proficient.  I am shocked at how fast he is able to adhere all the stripes around everything.  

We especially love the black hole at the bow 🙂  The world is made up of 3 stickers.  The background, gray, then the white letters, then the black outlines around the letters. But the hole as is was pretty fun to see.

This is a fun photo which shows you the new stickers, the removal, and the old stickers on the back of each sugar scoop.

The before and after photos are remarkable. It immediately lifts our spirits to see our name back on our home.

We are so pleased with Wayne’s work.  We would highly recommend Vital Signs for all of your graphic needs.  They did an excellent job for a very reasonable price.  They are located in Whangarei, New Zealand.

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post happened during the month of November.  We enjoy some Kiwi fun at a cabaret in our last blog post!