By Robert G. Jahnke
Posted on Friday, February 6th, 2026
Boats are probably my favorite things to letter—the copy is minimal, the surface is great, and the customer often wants an interesting layout. They are also very profitable.
Materials:
Black Avery vinyl: $15
RealGold vinyl: $120
Transfer tape: $7
Total materials: $142
Labor:
Work up layouts, handle correspondence: 45 minutes
Cut and mask black and gold film: 30 minutes
Drive to site and letter transom: 90 minutes
Total labor: 2 hours 45 minutes
When I received an email from a salesman at Sea Ray I was happy to hear they had a new 65-footer that needed a name on it. The email included a photo of the customer’s previous boat showing the name and letter style he wanted used on the new boat. The name was black with a gray drop shadow in the Tango font.
Normally customers get used to seeing their boat’s name in one font, and it’s difficult for them to switch to another one. However, depending on the new boat or color scheme, I have often been able to up-sell the project by showing them a sample of 22k RealGold vinyl [www.realgoldinc.com]. They usually love the look, and the advertised 15-year life helps convince new customers of the added value of upgrading to RealGold vinyl.
I have lettered these 65-footers before, so I had dimensions and photos of the boat transom. It was easy to superimpose the name over the photo, and the customer could see how it would look on the new boat.
In my return email I also included an example of how the gold would look compared to the black with gray shadow. The next day I received the email with the customer’s decision: “He wants the gold.”
I made a quick phone call and my RealGold Large Engine Turn gold order was on the way. Once everything was cut and ready I made the drive to the Sea Ray factory to install it. The weather was nice with light winds—a perfect day for the installation. In just less than an hour the graphics were complete.
Robert Jahnke’s shop, Island Graphics, is in Merritt Island, Florida.
This appeared in the May/June 2015 issue of SignCraft. While the prices have been adjusted for inflation as of 2026, they may not accurately reflect current pricing for such signage.
Work up drawings and handle correspondence: 45 minutes The owner’s previous boat had black vinyl lettering with a gray shadow, in a letterstyle called Tango. They planned to stay with that on their new boat. I emailed an image of that on their new boat’s transom and included a version done in 22K Real Gold Sign Vinyl. They chose the gold version.
Cut and mask film: 30 minutes I did this at the shop then was ready to head to the site. The black shadow and outline went on first, after cleaning the transom.
After the black vinyl was down, I registered the Real Gold film and applied it with the help of a little homemade application fluid.
I carefully removed the application tape…
…then squeegeed the film down one more time.
Travel and application: 90 minutes Before long, the Dolce Vita was complete and I was back at the shop.
