After about 6 months of drawing, starting over, and drawing again, I finally reached a graphic layout I deemed worthy of the effort required to wrap my F18 (now, if I can just sail as well). I hope to have the hulls wrapped this weekend. The sails will wait until the spring where I plan on refreshing the sailplan (no point in putting graphics on sails that will be replaced soon). Here's the plan:


The plan by Team Seacats, on Flickr




I created that boat template by digitally tracing (by hand on a tablet) over a picture of my old F18. The angle was perfect for this use with the sails. I assigned subtle transparencies to the sails (a little hard to see in that small version). Once I got an infusion, I needed to change the hull shape. I found a square shot of an infusion under sail flying a hull and it looked like it would make an accurate template. I traced that hull and replaced the old F18 hulls with it. Here is the original image of my old original F18 that I started with for the template:


origional image by Team Seacats, on Flickr




Before ripping through a couple hundred dollars worth of wrap vinyl and laminate, I needed to make sure my template was accurate. I mounted a chalk-line laser level on a tripod to beam a horizontal line on the starboard hull as it sat on the trailer. I then measured the overall length of that line and then took vertical measurements from the line to several reference points (bottom of the beams, bottom of the hulls, bow and stern dimensions). I then laid out squares matching those dimensions on my digital drawing and it was almost perfect (I was astonished).

It then took about 1.5 hours to redraw the graphic and prepare it for printing. I needed some extra graphic above, below, and beyond the hulls so I could trim it to fit as it is applied. I also needed a mirrored version for the port hull and I needed to find a way to get both hulls to fit on one 54" wide sheet of vinyl to reduce my cost. Here are the graphic elements that went into the hull wrap. I added several shadow effects to some of the elements.


outline5 production_process1 by Team Seacats, on Flickr




Now laying them out to fit on a sheet. The hull profiles were shaded dark so I could see roughly where I'll need to separate the two pieces:


outline5 production_process2 by Team Seacats, on Flickr




And finally, the production file. This is a really LARGE file. It's an image the size of the two 18 foot long hulls. The resulting file that I imported into the RiP software that manages the printer was nearly 100Mb and I had to step it down to 125 dpi just to keep it manageable for the computer (most sign shops will step it down to 96 dpi when doing wraps). I have a relatively strong computer and it took it 5 minutes to export the graphic file and about 10 minutes to RiP it for the printer output.


outline5 production_process3 by Team Seacats, on Flickr




I had the printer set to a high resolution - it took a little over 2 hours to print. A lower (typical wrap) resolution would have taken about half that time. At this point, I'm really happy to have the optional automatic takeup roller on this printer. It would be tough to manage the length of vinyl coming off the machine without it. I'm also happy to have the VP version that has twice as many print heads. They don't offer this machine this way anymore and it could have taken nearly 4 hours to print it at this resolution. However, if I ever have to start replacing print heads I may rethink that ($1200 each).

[img]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5348/9637414370_4077af315f.jpg[/img]
DSC_3844 by Team Seacats, on Flickr




This is where I stopped last night with the image on the floor drying. It's not completely necessary, but allowing the ink to cure makes for a better lamination (no more offgassing). The ink is similar to automotive paint. I left it out to dry over night before I'll laminate it today...maybe. I'm really nervous about this step because I've never laminated something this large and it's pretty much a hero or zero operation. If I don't get the graphic fed perfectly into the laminator at the very beginning, it will either wrinkle or feed to one side and all will be lost. I'll have to gather my nerves today.

[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7300/9637416138_fc24154034.jpg[/img]
DSC_3850 by Team Seacats, on Flickr