Early on, we knew that we would be changing the boat's name from Pegasus, if for no other reason than that there is already a well-known Triton with that name. It just didn't seem appropriate. Plus, the previous owner had applied some 8" black, hardware store letters. Poorly. They were crooked and bunched up and basically looked like hell, so even if we had kept the name, we would have needed new lettering. After much hemming and hawing about what we should call her, we finally settled on Dasein. For more about the name, click here.

Originally I had planned to have vinyl letters cut at a sign maker's shop, however the $100+ price tag seemed a bit steep since we will likely be painting the hull within a couple of years, and will need to have new letters made at that time. I toyed with the idea of paint, but eventually decided to try to cut my own vinyl letters.

Typography for a Transom

Since I was planning to cut my own letters, I knew I would need to choose a font that was not too complex, which meant a sans-serif face. This was fine, since a sans-serif face is generally easier to read on a transom anyway. I decided to use Optima, which is a sans-serif face that has just a little bit of a flare, which almost hints at a serif. I think its a really nice face, and I thought that it would probably be relatively easy to cut. Plus, it is the face that I used for the head and menu items on this website. I thought it would be nice to maintain a sort of "package" look!

The first step was to print out some letters at various sizes on the laser printer, which I would then be able to take home and tape to the transom, to get a feel for the size that I wanted, as well as the arrangement. I Eventually settled on Optima bold, 550 pt (which is about 6 inches) for the name, and 300 point for the hailing port. I placed the letters exclusively by eye, adjusting everything till it looked right. Then I measured down at the beginning and the end of the hailing port, just to be sure it *really* was straight. Once I had the letters taped to the transom the way I wanted them, I taped a large sheet of paper over the whole transom and traced the letters, the approximate curve, and some guide lines to help me position the real vinyl letters after they were cut.

Cutting the Vinyl

Next I went to Artist and Craftsman Supply and rummaged around through their self adhesive vinyl. Eventually I decided to get a yard of black and a yard of a deep red color. I also bought a roll of the transfer paper, which is like draftman's tape. Total cost: $12.00. Now I just needed to figure out how to make it work!

Over the course of a couple evenings, I managed to cut the letters. The vinyl was incredibly easy to cut, as it is quite thin. I taped the laser printed letters to the vinyl, and just cut along the outline of the printed letters. I used a razor knife (the kind with the scored blade that allows you to snap off the end of the blade to expose a fresh cutting surface) which sliced through the paper and vinyl effortlessly. I snapped to blade regularly so that I would always have a razor sharp edge, which is the key to any cutting project. I found that if I looked right where the blade was on the paper, I had a difficult time cutting smooth fair curves, but if I looked further ahead of the blade, to where I was *going* to be cutting, I had much better luck.

When I had finished cutting the letters, I was a little concerned, because they were not by any means perfect. But since it was the night before the launch, I really didn't have much choice, so I figured I'd just have to live with it! I peeled away all of the vinyl that was negative space, leaving the letters themselves on the backing paper.

Application is Easy With Soapy Water

The next morning, launch day, I took the sheet with the tracing of the letters and the guidelines back out to the boat and taped it to the transom. Using a pencil, I transferred several light guide marks for each letter of the name onto the transom. I didn't place any guides for the hailing port, since I figured that I would place that entirely by eye, after the name was in place.

I placed the transfer paper on the hailing port, which I had left completely together, so that the whole port would be transferred by a single sheet of transfer paper, ensuring that it would have a straight and level baseline. I also placed a piece of the transfer paper on each of the six letters for the name, which were all separate. This would allow me to adjust their postions if needed to produce a pleasing curve.

The moment of truth! Using an old spray bottle, I spritzed the transom with soapy water to prevent the vinyl film from sticking fast immediately, which would allow me to adjust the positions of the letters. I peeled the backing paper off of the letters and stuck them to the transom, starting with the "S" and "E" in the center, then working towards the ends. The letters were clearly visable through the transfer paper, and I stood back, squinted, and adjusted the positions of the letters until everything looked right. Then I squeegeed the water out from under the letters, carefully peeled the transfer paper off, and blotted things dry with paper towels. I then repeated the procedure with the hailing port, although that was easier to position, since all the letters were together on one piece of transfer paper.

Wow! What a difference! Planning time was about 1 hour. Total time to cut the vinyl was about 2 hours. The installation took about 30 minutes. And total cost was $12.00. I am very pleased with the results. I would cut my own letters again. Unless your face is right up against the transom, you can not tell that the letters were handcut.