Boot Stripe

[Roland Gendreau]

Has anyone successfully used vinyl striping to re-do their boot stripes?   If so how difficult was it to apply , especially the wide blue striping.  And how has it held up?
I am looking for an alternative to repainting the stripes.

Thanks

[Jim Hardesty]

And how has it held up?

A club member did that.  As I remember held up ok for the sailing season, came off during winter lay up.  Because the boot stripe is horizonal to the water and the boat is very curved, the width of the stripe varies a lot, not a simple thing to do with tape.  On a previous boat I repainted the boot stripe.  Really wasn't pleased with my work, but it looked very good once it was in the water.
Jim

[waughoo]

It is gelcoat on my boat.  The wide stripe had been painted over with bottom paint when i got the boat.  To bring it back reauired sanding out the 80 grit sanding marks with 180, then 220, then 400 and then 1000.  I then used a heavy cut polish and then a fine polish.  All that adds up to removing a LOT of material.  All this to say, if they are just chalky and oxidized, you can polish them a lot easier (in my opinion) than painting them.  Plus, they will look like a nice flat spray job vs a roll and tip job.

[Noah]

Another option is to use vinyl, but have a "vehicle wrap" expert apply it. They deal with compound curves all the time. However, it may be a bit tricky for anyone to do if the boat in the water?

[ewengstrom]

I'm not sure I'd trust vinyl for this job, it definitely won't hold up well to a strap crane if the operator isn't acutely aware of what he's working with and takes special precautions. I've seen the results of that mess and nobody was very happy.
Alex is correct, our Catalina's boot stripe is gelcoat, it should go all the way thru to the glass so polishing it out is probably the best option.
Our last boat, a Bristol 27.7 and had a painted boot stripe applied by a drunk lady at midnight on a Saturday night....it was pretty bad.
I was able to sand it off and then I used Interlux Bright Side single part Polyurethane to replace it. Bright Side holds up well above the water line. We owned the boat for 16 years and I remember having to sand it down maybe one time and reapply due to fading and some chipping but IMHO, that's a pretty good life for a single part paint living just above the water.
Fun story about doing this the first time.....I wanted the water line straight...and it was originally crooked as heck, so I waited until late one evening and used a laser level (the kind that shoots a red line) and mounted it on a tripod, I had three reference points, one at the bow, one at the stern and one at the extreme outside curve of the hull. I played with that level until all three dots lined up with the laser and that gave me a perfectly straight line to mark on the hull....then I did the second side.
I was VERY happy with the result and she always looked great from any angle.

[Ron Hill]

Roland : The answer to your question is NO. 

To my knowledge there has been no satisfactory substitute with longevity, for Catalinas' factory gelcoat boot stripe!!!   

A thought