Made the jump from Cruiser to Trawler.

Finally got the nerve up to sell my 31’ 1969 Uniflite Flybridge Cruiser. It was a 5 year restoration project and we had lots of fun out on the upper Chesapeake. Now we are ready for our next adventure. I love turning wrenches and laying glass and sea-deck as a hobby. Fortunately the new Fu Hwa is in impeccable shape with only a few issues. New isinglass on its way, and some fiberglass under the cockpit, and a paint job. How exciting.

Welcome aboard. Glad to have you here. I painted my boat last year.

Welcome aboard, Phil. Have you considered wrapping instead of painting? It's something we're seeing more of here in Florida. (I have no connection to any company that does wrapping) They do it on cars and stuff, now they're wrapping boats, too. You can go with color or white or some fancy design or make it all wood grain, if you're into that. Warranted for seven years but typically lasting nine to ten and about 1/4 the price of a paint job. Plus, you wash it but don't need to ever wax it. Something to consider.

John

MV Wanderlust said:

Welcome aboard, Phil. Have you considered wrapping instead of painting? It's something we're seeing more of here in Florida. (I have no connection to any company that does wrapping) They do it on cars and stuff, now they're wrapping boats, too. You can go with color or white or some fancy design or make it all wood grain, if you're into that. Warranted for seven years but typically lasting nine to ten and about 1/4 the price of a paint job. Plus, you wash it but don't need to ever wax it. Something to consider.

John

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John,


Interesting.... tell us more about wrapping.

Seevee said:

John,


Interesting.... tell us more about wrapping.

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The smaller, sport/runabout-type boats have been doing it for years. Here is a link to a collection of images of such boats. Many, but not all, of them have some pretty wild graphics. They use very durable marine-grade vinyl.

I recently toured a prospective boat with a friend. It was a 57' McKinna with a shiny gray hull. The broker explained that the owner had more money than he knew what to do with and had decided he wanted a hull color that was not traditional white. It was going to run about $50,000 to paint the hull from the rails down. It only ran $9800 to have the same area wrapped. Even if you paid $9800 every ten years to re-wrap it, it would be forty years before you would equal one paint job. Even up close, it looked good and the wrap was done three years ago. We've seen (but not toured) other boats in Florida waters that had wrapped hulls, too.

Seems quite practical to me. We're considering having it done in a few years on our baby, too. We'll probably go with a glossy white wrap to maintain the existing appearance. Wash it and walk away, no waxing needed.

Again, no connection with any of the companies that do such work... you can google boat wraps and find a ton of companies that specialize in it.

John

The McKinna hull wrap looks nice. The salon needs a disco ball to make it complete.

Seevee said:

John,


Interesting.... tell us more about wrapping.

Click to expand...

Thought I saw in a thread not too long ago where Pau Hana had its hull wrapped.


http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/results-our-fall-project-29223-2.html#post797564

I am definitely going to look into this wrapping material. Sounds like big savings opportunity.https://images.app.goo.gl/Wgmth9XTgHzpNmgQ6