Boat vinyl wrap: How to make your boat look like new again

Unable to afford a new boat, Hugo decides to change the look of his current one with a brightly coloured vinyl wrap

Like many people, I’m not in a position to change my boat even if I wanted to. Bohemian Girl is a 22ft Karnic Bluewater, which my three brothers and I bought brand new in 2006 for around £35,000 complete with an SBS road trailer. It’s not particularly flash but it does everything we want it to (day boating, watersports, occasional overnighting) and it has been mercifully reliable, easy to maintain and inexpensive to run.

These days the nearest equivalent Karnic costs around £55,000 and stepping up to something usefully bigger and better, such as an Axopar 29, would require another £100,000 on top of that. So unless all four of us come into a windfall at the same time, it’s not going to happen.

For that reason, I’ve gradually been pimping up our existing boat instead. Over the years I’ve added Flexiteek decking, Garmin nav gear, a Fusion sound system and Ceramic Pro coating. I’ve also had the cockpit reupholstered in Silvertex fabric. But the most pleasing upgrade was having it vinyl-wrapped way back in 2014. The metallic silver colour I chose instantly made the boat look younger, prettier and more upmarket.

At the time I was told it would last around five years. In fact, as of May this year it had already done ten years and still looked better than it did before the wrap. The colour hadn’t faded, the vinyl still retained its glossy sheen and best of all it never needed polishing.

However, it had started to peel a bit around the transom and waterline, where the combination of hard-to-shift barnacles and over zealous pressure-washing had begun to lift the edges. And if you looked closely enough there were a few small scratches and self-applied vinyl patches covering various minor parking mishaps.

So when Tom Lovesey from Generation Graphics offered to take off the old wrap and replace it with a new one, I leapt at the chance. Not only would it demonstrate how easy it is
(or isn’t) to remove an old wrap, I could also change the look once again.

Blue is the colour

That just left the small issue of choosing a new colour. Replacing the previous silver wrap with a similar one was the safe but boring option – been there, done that, got the t-shirt. This time
I wanted to go for something more daring. After all, one of the joys of a wrap rather than a paint job is that you can always take it off again if you get it horribly wrong or tire of the colour.
The book of Oracal 970 colour samples Tom sent me didn’t help.

Instead of the 20 or so options I was expecting to pick from, there must have been nearer 200 in every conceivable colour, shade and finish, from a glossy metal-flake orange called ‘Tangerine Dream’ to the rather less invitingly named ‘Taxi Beige’!

I narrowed it down to either a metallic ‘Azure’ Blue’ with a very on-trend matt finish or a solid ‘Ice Blue’ with a conventional glossy sheen. After much umming and ahhing, I finally settled on the latter in the hopes it would make my humble Karnic look a little like the turquoise coloured Cormates I’ve always admired.

Given how busy Generation Graphics are during the pre-season rush, we decided to wait until June when I could lift the boat on its trailer and take advantage of the more reliable weather to do the work outside rather than trying to photograph it inside a cramped, poorly lit shed. This also allowed us to split the process in two, with half a day allocated to removing the old wrap and another to wrapping it a week or so later in case of any issues.

Off with the old

In fact, the removal process went remarkably smoothly. Any concerns that the old vinyl might have gone brittle or the glue dried out after ten years of exposure to UV rays were soon dispelled as Chris set to work.

By running a scalpel along the length of the topsides at 50cm intervals (just firmly enough to score the surface of the vinyl without penetrating the gelcoat), he divided the wrapping into manageable-sized strips. He then lifted the rearmost corner of the vinyl using the scalpel blade and started to work his way along each strip using a heatgun to soften the glue before gradually peeling it away from the gelcoat.

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Even after a decade the vinyl proved remarkably strong and stretchy, requiring considerable effort and skill to peel it away without tearing it or leaving too much glue behind. Any adhesive that did remain was then dissolved with a solvent spray and wiped away with a clean cloth.

The whole process took around four hours and left my boat looking as clean and shiny as the day it was wrapped back in 2014. You could just make out where the old wrap had stopped short a few inches above the waterline due to the inevitable algae stains on the exposed gelcoat but there was no obvious change in whiteness or glossiness from UV bleaching. It just left the whole boat looking a bit bland and boring without its silvery skin.

On with the new

Phase two was booked for the following week and this time Tom himself turned up along with his colleague Ash to apply the new wrap. After another wipe down to remove any surface dust, grease or grime, they set to work laying a very fine cutting filament just above the waterline before hanging the vinyl from the rub rail using strips of sticky tape to hold it temporarily in place.

Once they were happy with the approximate positioning, Tom cut the vinyl to length, trimmed off the obvious excess and started to peel off the backing paper around the mid-point before sticking it to the gelcoat.

Using a plastic scraper to work outwards from this first contact point, the two of them then took turns to hold the unstuck vinyl taut while the other one smoothed it into place, ensuring any air bubbles were pushed out as they went. This whole process has been made a little bit quicker in recent years thanks to the introduction of microscopic channels on the vinyl backing that allows the air to escape.

Once the bulk of the wrap was in place, they then had to stretch it into the knuckle half way up the topsides using the heat gun and scraper to push it into the gap. But by far the trickiest part was easing it around the tapering bow without inducing any wrinkles. Only when Tom was 100% satisfied with this did he pull the cutting tape to leave a perfectly straight edge along the bottom before manually cutting around the various skin fittings and bow clip.

It’s an immensely satisfying process to watch (check out the timelapse video on our YouTube channel), and seeing your boat change colour in the space of a few hours is genuinely thrilling.

Verdict

I have to admit that at times I did wonder if I’d gone for too strong a colour but once the finishing touch of a thin white styling line had been added just below the knuckle, I was convinced I’d made the right choice. It looks superb on the water, and the novelty of having a different coloured boat, not just to what it was but also to every other Karnic I’ve seen, still gives me a buzz every time I catch sight of it. It may not be quite as exciting as upgrading to a bigger, newer boat but I reckon it’s the next best thing.

Boat vinyl wrap costs

Vinyl: Oracal 970 Ice Blue
Removal: Approx £500 inc VAT
New wrap: £1,900 inc VAT
Contact: Generation Graphics

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