3 Boat Wraps Break the Waves

WHETHER THEY ARE breaking the waves in open water or whizzing through land traffic on a trailer, finely wrapped boats are sure to turn heads. The challenges to creating and installing a seaworthy wrap are aplenty: “A couple of our best practices include surface preparation and respecting the water line,” says Patrick Frost, co-owner of Cleveland Wrap (Mantua, OH). “It’s important that all oxidation is removed from the surface of a boat, otherwise it will compromise the adhesion and integrity of the film. One way to remove oxidization from a boat is using vinegar and a low-abrasion scrubbing pad.”

Three signshops stepped up to the challenge, in addition to the special requirements of materials and shapes. The end results may make even the most committed landlubbers think twice.

Boat of the Ball

1 Cleveland Wrap (Mantua, OH) designed, produced and installed a new wrap for each day of a Cleveland boat show in front of a live audience, among which was a Scooby-Doo-inspired design that transformed the boat into a submarine Mystery Machine. They printed the graphics on Avery Dennison MPI 1105 wrapping film on their Roland DG TrueVIS VF2-640 eco-solvent printer, then applied Avery Dennison DOL 1306Z Gloss Laminate. The wrap was trimmed below the rail and above the waterline using 3M Knifeless Tape Finish Line, then sealed with permanent adhesive striping. According to Cleveland Wrap co-owner Patrick Frost, the biggest challenge with boats lies in keeping the artwork from distortion as the wrap approaches the bow and the vessel’s curvature.

The wrap crew sought to demonstrate to the public the variety of options available for Avery Dennison MPI 1105 films, which Frost says are very comformable at room temperatures. The diverse, colorful designs might have also sparked or renewed interest in the potential of boat wraps — the possibilities are endless. “Many people are attached to their boats, but are tired of the way they look and tired of buffing the hull every year,” Frost says. “Getting a wrap is a great solution to this problem because it refreshes the tired boat and has very little maintenance required.”

Clean Finish

2 Fastsigns of Maple Shade (Maple Shade, NJ) has lettered Chris Halgas’ landscaping trucks and equipment before, so the prospect of wrapping his boat was a given. After receiving the design from Aurora Graphics (Wichita, KS), Fastsigns printed the boat wrap on Avery Dennison MPI 1105 Easy Apply RS digital wrapping film using their Roland DGA RF 640, then laminated the wrap with Avery Dennison DOL 1360 Max overlaminate film on their KALA laminator. Because the boat had a swale, the team made sure the print was wide enough and installed at the right angles, as well as ensuring the surface was free of wax and non-stick materials. “Our project is best described as ‘Mean ’N’ Clean’ and it was our idea to install the stinger on the top of the cabin,” says owner Jeffrey Chudoff.

PERFECT BLUE

3 Bill Clark has been a client of Media 1 Wrap This (Sanford, FL) for over 30 years, having had a dozen different boats, motorcycles and vans wrapped and painted by the shop. Naturally he came to them again to wrap his Donzi 35ZF, which had many scratches on and chunks out of the gel coat, as Media 1 vice president Rick Ream recalls. It was Clark who inspired the shop to pioneer wrapping boats in the first place: He convinced Ream and Media 1 president Dale Salamacha to start painting off-shore race boats, a service that naturally advanced to wrapping them.

Wrapping the boat for the third time, the shop’s team used a single 30-ft.-long piece of Avery Dennison Blue Conform Chrome SF100-256-S Vinyl Wrapping Film for its main body, while black and silver accents were printed on 3M Wrap Film 2080-M21 Matte Silver Metallic before being protected with 3M Scotchcal Gloss Overlaminate 8518. The Blue Chrome did not conform as easily as regular materials, and its extreme reflectivity meant the team had to sand, fill in and smooth out all gouges and imperfections, watch for the tiniest collecting of dust, before the wrap could be applied. They used handheld infrared radiant heaters to smooth out the vinyl, then applied it to the boat with 3M squeegees.

“Each side of vinyl costs over $2,000. One drop or slip would have ruined that piece,” Ream recalls. “Nerve-wracking for sure!” But the meticulous attention paid off, and the result was picture-perfect. “To our knowledge, no one had ever wrapped a full boat in chrome vinyl before,” he adds.