Chris,

The sail did look incredible! You could have bought a decent HPLV gun by the time you bought all those preval sprayers!

I just updated my spray equipment with this kit which I think is a really good deal. link http://www.tooltopia.com/sharpe-24a434.aspx You can spray all kinds of stuff and mix and match the guns and cups.

Another happy Green Room customer!

G'day Jake do you do the graphic design as well I'm trying to organise signs for my new sails to advertise my business. I want a caricature of a rams head with a happy look over a ewes head with a surprised look. I also want it on my spin any ideas there?

I do some graphic design and logos (just finished a book cover for the ASME) but they're mostly a hobby for me outside of my day job (sales engineer) when I have time. My wife does some as well (she designed John's Capricorn "Angry Waitress" logo. Currently we're pretty busy building a new garage and office space and getting ready to relocate the business. However, if you want to send me what you have I can take a look at it...I'm hoping you have a clean idea of the logos with most of it put together. I'll be glad to clean it up and get it vinyl ready if it's close. We haven't even had time to do anything with our website in the last year (www.greenroomgraphics.com).

As far as spinnakers go, that's a tricky thing to carry out well and I don't know what kind of paint holds up well on the spinnaker. I have seem some that are applied with a "sharpie" permanent ink marker where you can use an old projector to project the image on the spinnaker and color it in...takes a while though!

I think Mike Krantz has this figured out. They ran a giant Zhik logo on their spinnaker in the '09 Tybee. When I asked how it was done he said they spray painted it - And when I looked closely there was some bleed. I'm interested in experimenting with this, but need a spin that is not preimpregnated with silicon, and has not had the seal and glide treatment (or sail kote).

Thanks guys I'm getting my new spin from Greg Goodall and he says after the spin is made you do what ever graphics you want then apply the silicon, after the silicons on it's too late.
As for having an idea, I think I'm really good at my job because I don't have to be creative I know your flat out, I thought my 50ft x 25ft project was a garage mahal until I saw yours then I realised I'm just building a shed. If you havn't got time to design I've got someone happy to do the designing could you cut a F18 size sail design? If you can perhaps you could PM me with a price to cut and ship it to me. I'm all for keeping it in the cat family.
Flumpmaster I wondered about getting one of those artists with the small paint spray pen to do a free style but I can see how your idea would work, I'm gonna do some research.

Jeff,

At 50 feet, I'm not sure my garage compares!

The sail graphics and such would probably be prohibitively expensive to ship from the US. Especially if it is large logos (which I am challenged with dimensionally with my current equipment). They do not roll very tightly making it a very large box. You will be much better off locating a local source for the vinyl production.

I thought you could do screen printing or some similar process on spinnakers?

Considering the short life of a chute, I'm not sure I'd bother unless somebody else was footing the bill.

The spin definitely needs printed graphics.

My spins were printed during production at Performance Sails - Netherlands.

The vinyls for the main and jib were printed by Jake

The hull graphics were supplied locally by a company that specializes in hull and vehicle wraps.

The overall design concept was done by our internal design department at Zhik.

FWIW, the pics taken of our boat were before all of the graphics have been applied. The jib now matches the main ZK pattern, and the inside of the hulls has a reverse graphic of the outside of the hulls...

That's really cool Mike. Congrats on your new boat. Fun to see someone doing it up right.

Mike,
I've looked closely at vehicle wraps/graphics and noticed there is a texture to them. Do yours have this texture? Do you think it will impede the boat speed?

I don't remember Mike's having that texture...but what you're seeing on those is small hollow channels that are manufactured in the adhesive on the back of the vinyl. Those channels leave a small square pattern visible on the outside. The purpose behind those channels is to allow an avenue for air bubbles to escape which makes applying very large seamless panels to complex surfaces much easier. Otherwise you have to use tons of application gel. I'm sure you can specify either way.

Does it make your eyes crossed when you look at it? :P

The surface of my graphics is as smooth as any others I've run across. It has a slight matte finish initially, but it was explained that was from being rolled up and the texture from the backing material. After exposure to the sun, it has assumed a shiny/gloss finish

The surface was prepped with a type of primer to increase adhesion around the edges. The leading edges were also overlaid with a clear tape layer to resist peelback from water pressure or grounding.

Is it true that the design was created to hypnotize and confuse the competition into sailing slow?

Dave and I wear special glasses that filter out the graphics and make us immune to it's effects. Special top secret Zhik stuff...

hahah... as i thought!

I think that those "special glasses" have something to do with rum.


...if Mike's involved :P

I think a lot of teams stopped printing their spinnakers because it becomes a bit
costly if you have to do it twice a year or more.