New varnished teak transom going on

[sandspur1966]

I know, I know... glutton for punishment.

But every time I see an old Matthews, Trumpy or Chris with a bright transom I sigh and say... "ain't that beautiful."

So here goes nuthin! Glassed in the big portlights, refurbishing the shower with a teak box and door as well as a new teak platform that is 11 inches longer.

Does anyone know a good name/sign painter in NY who does traditional gold leaf? I don't want to go to the expense of doing the transom and then stick faux gold vinyl letters on it.

 

[rsmith]

Looks great but were'nt the back windows sized for emergency egress from the aft stateroom?

 

[sandspur1966]

I have no doubt they were... but you haven't seen how much my A$$ has grown since the service... so they would not do me any good anyway

I did consider it for a while and even thought of putting in a bomar escape hatch in the aft deck when I did my teak decks... but then thought of how many aft cabin boats (including many Hatts) there are without escape ports and so I just upgraded my portable extinguishers to two 10lb units and if that coupled with my new Fireboy units and alarms doesn't get me in the clear... then I'm not sure trying to squeeze my St. Bernard sized butt through a cat door sized hatch would be the answer either.

 

[rsmith]

I think the ones that don't have the windows have an overhead hatch on the back deck. I had an inspector for an insurance survey gave me a hard time about my forward hatch being blocked from fully opening because of the whaler.

 

[pizzazsdaddy]

Hey Sandspur!

On the subject of gold leaf, they do offer it on the vinyl application as well. I had it on my 58 Yacht Fish. My name boards were varnished teak with the same gold leaf and varnish over that. It looked great and held up nicely. I'm not sure actual "sign painters" are around any more. Are they?

By the way, it looks stunning! Nothing quite as beautiful as a shiny varnished transom. Just Beautiful!!!

Now you'll need to install a closed circuit HD transom camera, so you can admire it from inside the boat! B.O.A.T. Break Out Another Thousand!

 

[SeaEric]

I have considered adding a teak transom. I'm a wood boat guy as you all know. I just can't seem to make myself do it. There is nothing like a hand turned gold leaf name. Not many guys know how to do it anymore. Last one I had done was by a guy who also did fire trucks.

 

[boatwright]

find a shop that restores old wood boats. they will know a gold leaf artist.

 

[fissioneng]

On the subject of gold leaf, they do offer it on the vinyl application as well. I had it on my 58 Yacht Fish. My name boards were varnished teak with the same gold leaf and varnish over that. It looked great and held up nicely. I'm not sure actual "sign painters" are around any more. Are they?

I did this for my nameboards and they look great! Lots of variety.

http://www.beacongraphics.com/supplies/signgold/signgold.html

There's a guy around our area that still does it by hand, but he's not in NY.

 

[captddis]

Kelly is a friend of mine and She is the absolute best. She spends most of her time in Lauderdale doing megayachts and Rybo's. She also does the new Vikings and they fly her up to the factory to do gold leaf names. She is not cheap though. 10K is not unusual. BTW, she does it freehand!


http://www.overboardart.net/gallery/boats/index.html

 

[Avenger]

WOW! Love the 3-D effect. Very nice work.

 

[captddis]

WOW! Love the 3-D effect. Very nice work.

Yes beautiful! However I have a gold leaf name on my boat and I am tired of the maintenance.
Kelly has patched it numerous times but now the clear coat is coming off of the transom. I am going to have the transom sanded down and re painted and then a Vinyl name is going on.

 

[Avenger]

I know I don't need to tell you to make sure you get good quality stuff. Mine started to cr@p out in three seasons. It went from this:



To this:

Solid color probably would have worked better, but I was very disappointed.

 

[SeaEric]

I have had gold leaf boat names on countless wooden transoms. I have never had one go bad - ever. As the coats of varnish build up it locks the gold in. Unless the seams on the boards break or the varnish is neglected and fails, the gold should last forever. On a fiberglass transom, its a different deal. You have to continually re-coat the clear over the gold.

My all time favorite combo is the hand turned gold with a "fire red" (One Shot sign paint color) outline. See: boat name "Tortuga" image 12 on the gallery of the website that capt. dd posted.

 

[captddis]

I have had gold leaf boat names on countless wooden transoms. I have never had one go bad - ever. As the coats of varnish build up it locks the gold in. Unless the seams on the boards break or the varnish is neglected and fails, the gold should last forever. On a fiberglass transom, its a different deal. You have to continually re-coat the clear over the gold.

My all time favorite combo is the hand turned gold with a "fire red" (One Shot sign paint color) outline. See: boat name "Tortuga" image 12 on the gallery of the website that capt. dd posted.

Speaking of fire red,
I bought a new Suburban Diesel in 1991. It was fire red and summit white. I had Kelly put a gold leaf stripe around the truck. The gold leaf was the seperation between the red and white about 1"tall.
People would just sit and stare at the truck. I kept it in a garage when not in use and would put a coat of clear Awlgrip on the gold leaf every year. That was 41.5 feet of gold leaf!!

 

[sandspur1966]

Re: New varnished teak transom going on



Kelly is a friend of mine and She is the absolute best. She spends most of her time in Lauderdale doing megayachts and Rybo's. She also does the new Vikings and they fly her up to the factory to do gold leaf names. She is not cheap though. 10K is not unusual. BTW, she does it freehand!


http://www.overboardart.net/gallery/boats/index.html

Wow Kelly sure is talented, the last two images on her site are amazing, with the shadow detail on both the name and the billfish, looks like it is popping right off the transom.

I agree that the classic machine turned leaf with a serif font and a single outline color is hard to beat, Tortuga is just so.

But I have to say image no 3 on page one (Absolut maybe?) looks so crisp I am tempted to break from tradition.

$10k? WOWEE... her talent is likely worth every penny but hat's more than the combined materials cost for the teak transom AND the aft deck. The last time I had it done was on a 38 ft wood downeaster built by a yard called Padebco in Maine. It cost me 1800 bucks then... I remember feeling ridiculous paying that much for a name on the transom. But that was in the 80's.

 

[captddis]

The name and hailing port are not that expensive. The artwork is what runs it up.

 

[captddis]

Eric,
Unfortunately gold leaf does not last for ever outside on fiberglass.
To be fair the name was on the boat when I bought it in 2002. I have had it repaired a few times.
It is all coming off when I haul. I never liked the "E" anyway!

 

[johnjen50]

Shawn
Looks fabulous. Curious on how you get the wood to follow the curve of the transom? I've always admired that nut never really understood how the wood was fastened to the transom. Thanks

John

 

[jim rosenthal]

You bolt the boards to the transom and clamp and glue them in place, and then fill the bolt holes with teak plugs. It's a big job. I think usually the teak boards are as thin as they think will hold up- about 3/8", I would guess. You have to have a certain amount of thickness to bolt the boards and set the plugs in to cover the bolt holes.

 

[yachtsmanbill]

Theres paint and then theres plastic... On the stripe color issue, man up, and be different. This guy charged me $90; I gave him a $35 tip for driving 5 miles... ws