If you have been following me on Instagram, you've probably realized that I’m on vacation at my parent’s lake house (or at least I was last week.. I’m heading home today.)  And of course, like any good DIY’r I can’t just relax while on vacation. I have to keep myself busy with little projects.

So when I realized that my dad’s fishing boat hadn’t yet been christened with it’s given name, I decided to use my mom’s Silhouette to create some permanent vinyl decals for the transom.

To understand the boat’s name, first you have to know that my dad’s first name is Roger.  And when he was a kid he had a canoe he named “The Jolly Roger” which he painted with a skull and crossbones.  So of course, when he got a fishing boat, he named it “The Jolly Roger II”

If you don’t understand the reference, The Jolly Roger was actually the traditional english name given to the Skull and Crossbones Flag which was flown over pirate ships during the 18th century:

I ran into the problem that my dad’s boat has an outboard motor so it doesn’t have the large traditional transom space like a sailboat or yacht may have:

An example of a traditional personalized sailboat transom

So I had to make the lettering smaller and wanted to add something to the other side of the transom, to balance it out.  Of course, we settled on the Skull and Crossbones.

I found an image he liked online, traced it in the silhouette software and cut it out of Oracal 651 (on a roll so I could make the letters as large as I needed)

I used Silhouette brand transfer paper to transfer the design (there are cheaper options for transfers, but I like this kind the best)
Figuring out the placement was the hardest part.  Since when the boat was up in the boathouse we couldn’t see exactly where the water line was.. so first I got out on the inner tube and made a mental note of where the waterline was when the boat was actually in the water.  Then we brought the boat up on the lift and I rowed out in a rowboat to apply the decals:

In our case we applied the skull and crossbones just above the tow line anchors on the left side (above the swimming platform) and the name of the boat and hailing port on the right hand side:
The best part is that the entire project was less than $5 (hundreds less than a custom paint job and about 25% of the cost of ordering a custom vinyl decal online.)  Needless to say, I have a very JOLLY ROGER in my family now.

A few other specifics about this project:
The font is called: Hagin Caps Medium (and I found it on Font Fabric)

The skull is approximately 13 inches (wide) by 10 inches (high) while the letters are approximately 3 inches tall (the hailing port lettering is closer to 1.5 inches tall).

I found the graphic on a google search for “Skull and Crossed Sabers.”

The vinyl is Oracal 651 in glossy black and was transferred with Silhouette brand Transfer Paper.

The decals should be permanent and withstand both the sun and water, but they can be removed with a razor blade if that is ever required.

For the step by step instructions on working with vinyl, you can see my Kitchen Aid Mixer post.