name boards

a friend gave me two teak name boards so i sanded them down and remover his old boats name off the boards and set them up the the HAAS mill and ta da...

i think they came out alright!



the varnish is still wet in the photo so in the lettering it looks drippy

Nice... Shudda named it "Bye Y'all" though.

I plan on painting the lettering. Probably white..

Bye all was the name of the vessel my whole life, I grew up next to her in the 1000 islands.. It was a
friend of our family and he passed away and I bought if from his doughter, so the name has to stay

Sure, depending on size, name, type of wood, finish...it wouldn't be cheap tho

The name boards look very good. If you're going to mount them on the sides of the flying bridge it's a good idea to place nylon spacers on the mounting bolts between the boards and the fiberglass (or wood on a wood boat). If you don't, moisture will become trapped between the boards and the sides of the flying bridge and will eventually get under the finish and start to lift it. It will only be a matter of time before the finish on the edges of the boards will start to lift, and then the fronts, and you'll be looking at a refinish job again. The spacers don't have to be thick, just enough to keep the backs of the boards free of contact with the fiberglass or wood underneath.

The same thing applies to name boards applied to a transom.

I made new teak name/nav light boards for the flying bridge when we bought the boat as well as new name and hailing port boards for the transom. The advice about the spacers was given to us by the shipwright who did a lot of work on the big GB charter fleet in our marina. On the transom boards he advised us to glue a pair of spacers, top and bottom, to the backs of the boards in their middles to hold them evenly off the curved transom planks--- the boards are bolted only at their ends.

If for some reason you don't want a spacer gap between the boards and the surface they're mounted on, then a smart thing to do is to bed the boards with something like Dolfinite. It comes in natural (tan) and white. Dolfinite is not an adhesive so if you have to remove the boards for some reason in the future they will come off easily, as opposed to using something like 3M 4200, Sikaflex, etc. (And for God's sake don't use silicone.) But whatever bedding material you use, the object is to prevent moisture from getting under and trapped behind the nameboards and attacking the finish because once moisture gets under the finish in the back it will eventually work it's way around to the front.

i planned on using nylon spacers, very important. more important on a woodie tho

Varnish the back and the spacers are less of an issue.

koliver wrote:

Varnish the back and the spacers are less of an issue.

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You would think so but apparently this is not true.* According to the shipwright who gave us the spacer tip, moisture trapped between the back of the board and the cabin side will accelerate the deterioration of the finish.* I saw this first-hand on our dock on an Island Gypsy when the owner completely refinished his name boards, including the backs, and installed them directly onto the sides of the flying bridge with no spacer or bedding compound.* The boat, like ours, sits in the weather year round and by the next summer the finish was starting to lift around the edges of the boards.** So he pulled them off and found that large areas of the finish had broken down and lifted on the backs of the board due to being constantly wet.* He refinished them and bedded them and so far there do not appear to be any problems with the finish on the edges or fronts.

*

GonzoF1 wrote:

Nice... Shudda named it "Bye Y'all" though.

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That is hilarious...I was gonna say the same thing!!!

*

Great looking boards, BTW!!!

They make liquid plastic.
You just pour it into the letters. Comes in colors. I made something similar in high school 40 + years ago

SD

I vote for gold leaf/paint for the letters.** Much classier than white, methinks.

In the routed letters, white paint first, then varnish, so the white paint gets slightly yellow as the varnish ages. A classic good look.
Gold leaf is also a great look, but hard come by.

koliver wrote:

In the routed letters, white paint first, then varnish, so the white paint gets slightly yellow as the varnish ages. A classic good look.
Gold leaf is also a great look, but hard come by.

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thanks! thats what ill do

*

Anyone know where to get new name boards made up? We are changing the name on the boat and will need new boards.

Thanks,
Bob

Are you talking about getting existing boards renamed and finished or having new boards made up?

If you're talking about having new boards made up, they're very easy to make, even if the name board also incorporates the nav light as it does on a Grand Banks. The very*first project we did on our boat after acquiring it was making new boards as the originals had been cut down by previous owners until all that was left was the part that held the light.

If you don't want or need*to incorporate the light mount into the boards they're even easier to make. We also made new transom name and hailing port boards at the same time we made the new flying bridge boards.

It's a good idea to stand the boards off the surface with nylon spacers to keep moisture from getting trapped behind them. Even if you varnish the heck out of the backs of the boards eventually the moisture will work its way through and start lifting the finish and it's just a matter of time before this will work its way around to the side and front and you'll have to refinish them again.

If you get yourself some nice teak to start with it's an enjoyable project that ends up looking very nice.



-- Edited by Marin on Tuesday 16th of February 2010 11:02:06 PM

Lots of choices. I can't help with links right now because my main computer is in the shop. You can find lots of folks with computerized routers that will make up a board for you in the $20-$50 range...think about those folks that show up at fairs and carnivals and make those name planks for people's houses. You can supply your own wood if you want teak, mahogany, etc.

You can use gold paint if you want that look in the letters. One of the boat paint mfgs. makes a paint exactly for that use, although it's yellow not gold.

You can use a piece of clear plastic and use stick-on gold letters (or other) then attach it to your current nameboard. You could also find someone to paint the name on a board then attach it.

only problem with those teak name*boards, with the names carved/routed into the wood, as on most gb`s, they can`t be read from over 10 ft away(slight exzageration) but they are very difficult to read...at least make the letters white, not black! should be wider/longer too, with larger letters......c

Here is one of the nameboards we made right after acquiring our boat in 1998. Even though I had little woodworking skill at the time, they were very easy to make. I would suggest to anyone contemplating a similar project to use a lighter lettering color. We used "gold leaf" color but with the subsequent applications of varnish they are not that bright anymore and are hard to read from any distance unless the light angle is just right. These boards are almost 12 years old now and have held up very well. My wife made covers for them a number of years ago and that has helped a lot. The last time they were varnished was about five or six years ago--- they will get a refresher coat this summer.