Blue Hull Stripe replacement - East coast

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corinthmistral

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For several years I have been meaning to replace the blue hull stripe on my Friendship 35. It's similar to that on a Hallberg Rassy or Westerly etc. 11m long and 5" wide. The original stripe is sprayed on and beyond the point where it can be polished up any more. It's in good clean/smooth condition so just needs a t-cut and then the stripe applying, not any remedial work beforehand.
Can anyone recommend someone that can do this on the East coast? Doesn't necessarily need to be "marine" - I'm happy with a car stylist or signwriter etc. I'm in Tollesbury but the boat can be hauled out or taken to any of the marinas on or around the Orwell.
I had one quote for having the stripe re-sprayed, which came in at £1,700(!) I was hoping to have it done for a few hundred pounds, bearing in mind I can buy the vinyl for £60. I appreciate the skill involved in applying it and am happy to pay for that expertise, but I'm not bothered enough about it to shell out close to £2K by the time I've factored in haul out costs.
Any recommendations gratefully received.
Thank you
 
corinthmistral said:
For several years I have been meaning to replace the blue hull stripe on my Friendship 35. It's similar to that on a Hallberg Rassy or Westerly etc. 11m long and 5" wide. The original stripe is sprayed on and beyond the point where it can be polished up any more. It's in good clean/smooth condition so just needs a t-cut and then the stripe applying, not any remedial work beforehand.
Can anyone recommend someone that can do this on the East coast? Doesn't necessarily need to be "marine" - I'm happy with a car stylist or signwriter etc. I'm in Tollesbury but the boat can be hauled out or taken to any of the marinas on or around the Orwell.
I had one quote for having the stripe re-sprayed, which came in at £1,700(!) I was hoping to have it done for a few hundred pounds, bearing in mind I can buy the vinyl for £60. I appreciate the skill involved in applying it and am happy to pay for that expertise, but I'm not bothered enough about it to shell out close to £2K by the time I've factored in haul out costs.
Any recommendations gratefully received.
Thank you
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Do it yourself, it isn't that difficult. Admittedly keeping a 5inch wide strip smooth and not wrinkled and with no bubbles is more difficult than a one inch strip. You could change the scheme so as to disguise the problem, maybe by putting two smaller one inch stripes on top - they would be a lot easier to handle. Alternatively at next lift out ask one of the many van sign companies to come and do it for a couple of hundred or so. There are lots of these people around, just find the person nearest the boat.
 
The stripe can easily be repainted with any good quality paint (eg International or Hempel) by masking off sanding and wiping with solvent then applying paint with a roller and laying off with a good quality brush. It takes less than a day and costs roughly the price of the paint. I have known it done from a pontoon while the boat is afloat.
The same method is applied to boot topping which some owners do each year while ashore so not a difficult task.
 
If you go for vinyl diy wait until it's cold. My experienced GRP repairer was tearing his hair out trying to stop the tape wrinkling in 32 degrees.
 
When I had the stripes resprayed on my HR352, the yard built staging around the boat so that they could spray the stripe in one continuous pass. I guess you might need similar safe access for people sticking a vinyl stripe on.
 
I had the blue striping on my Westerly Discus replaced with vinyl about 13 years ago and it's still looking good. It was done by an auto-striping firm called Flowline2K.com and you can see their work on their website. I did the surface preparation and they applied the stripes ( in a full F6!) which were as good as any paintwork and have proved tough and resilient.

Cheers,

Martin
 
thanks for all the replies. Had this done yesterday - £85 for 30m of 5" 10 year warranted blue vinyl and the job completed for under £200 by a local van sign writer. The finish is outstanding, and flawless. No joins and the signwriter included new (large) names as well. Job took two of them 4 hours and it was all done from the pontoon with me in attendance to manage the warps and turn the boat round when the first side was completed. So that saved another £350 haul out/back and cradle hire etc. Very pleased with the result and the price. Now looks like an new boat.
 
corinthmistral said:
thanks for all the replies. Had this done yesterday - £85 for 30m of 5" 10 year warranted blue vinyl and the job completed for under £200 by a local van sign writer. The finish is outstanding, and flawless. No joins and the signwriter included new (large) names as well. Job took two of them 4 hours and it was all done from the pontoon with me in attendance to manage the warps and turn the boat round when the first side was completed. So that saved another £350 haul out/back and cradle hire etc. Very pleased with the result and the price. Now looks like an new boat.
Click to expand...

Would be grateful if you would share his website/email addresses. Thanks.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
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