And so it begins....the boat graphic wrap

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

You can do it Jake. I have faith.

Looks awesome. I hope you don't become to familiar with the initials OCS. It'll definitely stand out.

Cool I may have you do a set of sails for me if your interested.

I may never do this again!...I need to hire somebody to show me the ropes with the wrapping technique. We finally got one hull done and it looks pretty good but it took a while. I'll have some pics tomorrow.

Must be a b@#$h to keep all the bubbles and wrinkles out on a 3d surface , that big.

In hindsight, it wasn't THAT bad. I had a lot of frustration with my laminator and spent about four hours just trying to get it to run true. I kept getting a "boat wake" when I would do a dry run with the vinyl (or any vinyl film that wide) after a few feet of running. I had just about given up when Ted came over and convinced me to take it apart and reverse engineer it. We finally figured out that the pinch rollers didn't have enough pressure on them so we adjusted the tension springs and got it working. That amount of annoyance really shortened my fuse and while I knew I need a mental break before getting into the wrap, the uncertainty of what was to come would have impacted by sleep that night. So, I figured we should push through. My irritation was offset with a couple of beers and good company but when it was done, I was DONE.

Here is the laminator before I changed it over to the 54" wide films. I've only ever run 30" wide material through it and, even then, it was a periodic source of some frustration.


DSC_3852 by Team Seacats, on Flickr



By about 8:30 we had it laminated and started installation of the starboard hull. We finished at about 10:30. With a little practice, I think I can get this to just a little over an hour per hull.

Application wasn't too bad. I'm planning some more tricks today and am convinced that a third pair of hands will make this go very quickly. The vinyl itself is low tack/removable for about 48 hours, shrinks under heat, and has a tiny matrix carved into the adhesive to help allow air to escape. It also turns to butter with a little heat. It is pretty incredible stuff (and I'm use the economy film for this test wrap since I was pretty sure I was going to destroy a bunch of it...I'll upgrade to a higher quality film on the next round). It is pretty incredible with what it will endure. The fact that there is no flat surface and everything is convex on the boat shape makes it a little tricky. You can't attach too much of the vinyl down any part of the hull and have to go little by little down the entire hull. I'll be cleaning out a little more space in the garage for the application to the port hull too.


DSC_3856 by Team Seacats, on Flickr


DSC_3857 by Team Seacats, on Flickr


DSC_3863 by Team Seacats, on Flickr


DSC_3861 by Team Seacats, on Flickr

[img]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5454/9647128916_bacf4a30f2.jpg[/img]
DSC_3870 by Team Seacats, on Flickr

That looks AWESOME jake!

Good work dude!

A torch instead of a heat gun? you're brave. Looks incredible.

haha...yeah, well...the tutorial I have said that once I gained experience I would appreciate the speed of using a torch instead of a heat gun. I figured I would jump right to that step. I got lucky - the only time I burned through was when it didn't matter and man, you want to talk about a thin fast line.

You should talk to the guys who do trucks, buses and cars for race teams.

Friend of mine did the same, the only downside is that when you damage the hull it is a real pain to repair the wrapping.

Did you work out the weight of the graphics?
Darryn
Mosquito
1782

What is the projected impact on drag through the water?

How low can you go before risking damage to the wrap from contact with sand?

Mike

Not when you own the equipment and can just print a patch whenever you feel like it But, in all seriousness I agree...It's not as durable as paint or gelcoat. You make a tradeoff but you do get considerable benefits:

1) the graphic possibilities are almost endless
2) It is easily repairable (provided you can acquire patches easily)
3) hull prep and installation can be done in less than a day (try that with any other finish) and
4) it's completely removable.

I could probably apply this whole boat again in three hours with an extra pair of hands - and that includes a coat of wax. I think I probably had 60 man hours in it when I regelcoated 50% of this boat two years ago...so if I have to redo this graphic in a year and a half, I'm still waaay ahead. I'm also going to stop using my trailerable hull covers so it's saving me packing time.

OK...all done! We finally found a process that works pretty fast. We line the graphic up on the hull and temporarily tape in place. We made a tape hinge in the middle (as we did yesterday) to help guide the alignment. Instead of trying to peel back half of the graphic and lay it on the hull in one go, we rolled back the liner material about three feet back from the bow. We then stuck the bow and used the roll of material as a spacer to keep the sticky side off the hull until we pressed it in place. One person just kept rolling the roll down the hull while I pressed the film in place. I had a third pair of hands holding some vertical tension on the film as I pressed it but I think I can handle that while I press on my own. It goes pretty fast this way. Once it's applied to the flatter part of the hull we just started working down and up around the hull lifting, tensioning, and pressing into place. We had the bulk of it on the hull in 45 minutes and should be able to get even faster next time. All hands were on deck so I didn't get many photos of the rolled liner technique.

I then trimmed the edges with a razor blade and used an old batten to make a straightedge on the bottom of the hull. I finished the edges that will be directly exposed to water with a very thin 1/2" wide 3M edge-sealing tape made for sealing boat wraps. It then applied a coat of a polymer wax and then a carnuba wax to make it slickery.



DSC_3876 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr



DSC_3884 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr




DSC_3887 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr

Interesting question. I weighed a sample scrap piece this morning and it works out to be 1.65 lbs of material per hull. I guess I need to diet for a week. ;-)




I certainly don't have any scientific data on this but it can't be much. It's a very thin film and it's mostly in-line with the hull. It doesn't cover the bottoms but stops just shy of where my cradles hit the hull. Visually, it will be hard to notice the difference. I did run it further down on one side to see how it survives the cat-trax. However, this is not as tough as gelcoat or paint. I wouldn't expect it to survive well if you plan on rubbing it up and down a beach. It has a clear laminate film on it to help give it some additional durability but you trade the durability you would get from other finishes for the incredible graphic possibilities and removability. It can also be patched if needed since it's all digital. I can just reprint a section and repair (obviously, I don't want to do this more than I have to). The vinyl has a gloss laminate that I apply after application so it looks has a high level of reflectivity.

This image shows roughly where I stopped down the curvature of the hull. I could slide this boat onto the beach if I wanted to, but I shouldn't be flying a hull too high or it might get into the graphic. But, this boat only sees the ground by accident. If I had planned on doing a Tybee 500 or Great Texas campaign, I would design the graphic a little higher and incorporate the hull color into the bottom of it to make a clean transition to keep it out of harms way.


DSC_3886 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr

Oh, and PS, I bought a digital heat gun yesterday and I do actually like that better than the torch. It's not any slower, applies heat over a broader area, and is much less likely to burn a disastrous hole in the film.

I didn't really address this point - you have to work it but bubbles really aren't a problem. Wrap vinyl is a special material that has a slow setting adhesive. You can stick it to itself (adhesive to adhesive) and peel it back apart a dozen times. You can also peel it off the hull and restick it again and again. It will stretch if you pull it hard enough but if the stretch is a problem (say you were reaching your hand up behind it to get to a bubble) you just hit it with heat and it shrinks right back into shape. Heat will also cause it to shrink smaller than it was originally and while hot, it will turn to butter making it really easy to conform it to complex shapes. Even if you crease it while pushing it down, you lift if off the hull and hit it with heat for a couple of seconds, the crease disappears and you just push it back down. It's incredibly forgiving. There is also a tiny grid pattern carved into the adhesive to allow air to escape but this wasn't very forgiving in that way...but there is a lot of variation in the designs of the air egress between manufacturers and this was some of the lesser expensive wrap vinyls. I'm sure the premium materials are better in this regard. I'll switch to the premium materials now that I'm through experimenting.

yeah it should be ok on the beach/sand.... but what about on the trailer cradles ????
is the wrap good enough to withstand the ride on the trailer without being damaged.....


As you said, you'd not go as far down next time, I'd also hint at incorporating the trailer cradle aswell in the design layout so it blends in somewhat better for the higher number of road users that will see the boat being transported over those that will see it on the water at a distance


We learnt this years ago with the race cars, more people see the car on its way to the track than actually see it on the raceway, we also found placement of sponsors signs was also effected during transport, major sponsors signs became less visual on the trailer.



simple solution for you at this stage would be to wrap the cradle supports to match up with the boat..... then it would be sweet as


just my "view"

other wise..... top job

Kingy

I have a sneaking suspicion that what little free time you used to have is going to be used up filling all the orders you're gonna get for this. That's a good thing. Now you need to do a slug graphic on the side of the J-22.

Looks great to me.

Now, that's funny. We've been talking about doing something on the J22 when I get it to the house for some attention this winter. I'm not sure about a slug but you have me thinking.....

Regarding the cradles, I think I'll be OK..my cradles are pretty flat bottomed and I have my trailer tires balanced (yes, I'm that guy). It's really not a big deal to get the graphic high enough up the hull where the cradles won't be a problem. If I get some damage there, I'll just trim the graphic a little higher and re-seal it. I'm more worried about the blistering I discovered on the hulls from the cradles! I'm going to get a Todd Hart paint booth to put on my boat storage pad so it can stay mostly dry.

I'm also helping someone restore an old Ski Tique that doesn't want to spend the time refinishing the hulls...I'm probably not going to blog that work but pictures will be on our Flickr site at in the Graphics Works set (man, I need to get our website finished):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamseacats/sets/72157635308360963/

Have you thought about wrapping the boards/rudders as well?
As long as it doesn't affect the performance of the boards this could be a real eye-catcher.

Very cool result Jake. Are you running a vinyl print business - or did you just buy the printer for your own projects? Any advice on buying a vinyl printer like this (size, manufacturer etc) for boat and sail projects?

Chris.

I have an "on-the-side" business that my wife and I have been running and I keep toying with making it a full-time proposition for me. We've got a solid industrial customer base that has kept this viable for a while. For most of that time we had a 20" vinyl cutter and a 12" printer/cutter machine. A couple of years ago we re-invested into the business to build the garage (and office space) and increase our capability. With the wider/larger format capability comes a considerable savings in consumables. I've always used Roland DGA equipment because it's built like a tank and just works for year after year. What we're doing now is a bit beyond the hobby level (for me, anyway) but if you are interested, you can find out more about the printing equipment at the Roland site. The main printer we use is a VP-540i which was only made for a short while. It's a combination printer/cutter with large/double print heads for accelerated printing. The sister machine that they offer today is the SP-540i which is the same machine but with 1/2 the print speed. They split the product lines with the VersaCamm and Soljet when they developed a method to print with metallic flake inks. The VP series was dropped to make a clear line of distinction between Soljet and VersaCamm models.

Roland VersaCamm Website

Our laminator is a Royal Sovereign 1401C

I rechecked my measurements and I had assumed an average height of 24" on the graphic. It's actually 22" at the bow and a little less than 12" at the stern. Assuming the average is closer to 18" (probably a little less than that), the overall weight is closer to 2.5 lbs for both hulls.

Jake,

I don't want to teach you to suck eggs, but thought you might be interested to know (but probably already do) that the guys doing wraps on power boats paint over the seams with a clear varnish. It helps with stopping water getting under and lifting the seam.

Sure, Ive seen that. It comes in a big felt tipped pen. The 3M edge sealing tape I used is supposed to be better for that and remain more removable later.

It would definitely be cool but I doubt it will withstand the wear from sliding in the trunks for long. It would be tough to get the seam to not affect foil performance and I'm not sure it would survive complete submersion under those circumstances. Gelcoat definitely has a purpose there.

Those are some mad skilz you're building there... Kind of like window tinting, from hell.

I'd bet that machine would cut window tint too.
Might be a niche market there..... Window tint with something printed on it?

Really hot looking boat Jake! Sent you an email on the EVA decking. Totally jealous of the man shed that must make these projects SOOO much easier!

Give it a month, I've got 5,000 lbs of porcelain tile in a corner waiting to be installed. I'll finally have a finished floor that I can clean!

It would cut window film but I doubt that film will retain the ink. We can, however, print on the perforated window film but I'm not sure you want that on anything but back windows.

The GRG boat looked AWESOME on the water and it was painfully obvious that the wrap did nothing negative to speed. I am working on a design drawing for mine! of course it will not be all fancy and computer generated like jake's.....more likely crayons, construction paper and glue sticks...

Here's a shot of the hulls finished (with my sailing crew, Ted). Replacing and putting graphics on the sails are the next project.


DSC_3888 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr

I don't know Jake, those sails look damn new to me...funny your boat was built 5 ahead of mine, if that's your original sail number on those not so 08' sails...I'm 885.

Boat looks really good and I know you guys are quick, it'll be fun racing...where's your America's entry?

I think that jib is original to the boat - it's wasted. I bought that main and kite last year. 880 is the number Frank and I have carried two Nacra 20's ago and it was available in the US sequence so we changed it on this boat. It kept us from having to change all our embroidered and sublimated team gear. I'm not sure what the original number was (i'll have to look). The main could probably go a little longer but it's comforting knowing I have a solid set of backup sails...and I need a white main and jib for my color scheme.

I haven't decided if we're making NA's this year or not. I'll have the decision made this week (hopefully prior to the late registration fee).

I was just thinking about doing that in the back window of my WRX for some company advertising. There hardly a flat surface on that car to put vinyl.

Can you find templates to cut the stuff to size so I'd just have to put it on? Or would you just make it big and I'd have to cut it to size?

I need to send the car somewhere to get the windows tinted soon, riding around in a fishbowl is getting old. I'd assume tint and the perforated stuff would not be a good plan?

Tint goes on the inside and Perf film on the outside so there is no problem having both. I'll be glad to make you something. the perf film is cut larger than the window and trimmed to fit and to do it right, the film is laminated to smooth out and cover all the little holes that will trap dirt and water and lead to failure of the film. If you can give me dimensions and take a photo of the window as centered and perpandicular to the window as possible, we can get pretty accurate with it. I'm also getting ready to spend a big nickle on dimensional template files for a kagillion cars so I may have your detailed window shape shortly.

How's it hold up to a wiper?

It holds up OK. It doesn't help it but you can still expect it to last a couple of years. The perf films are the weakest part of wraps - most companies will guarantee a wrap for 3 years but perf films for 1.5. The lamination on it helps too.

I don't know what your logo looks like, but a premium material vinyl decal may be a better way to go.

PM me your email, I'll send you some stuff.