Vinyl wrap

My understanding is that it's not as tough as gelcoat and that it is relatively cheaper the bigger the boat. Nonetheless I am suprised it's not more common in dinghies. Is there a better material than vinyl? PU or whatever cricket bats are protected with?

Did my first boat ten years ago, great for topsides only...forget trying it anywhere else.

How does it work? Must be more complex than wrapping a text book or shrinkwrapping bacon?

Originally posted by JimC If it did work for underwater surfaces it would be the perfect solution for old glass boats with chalky crazed gel coat...

We looked at doing this with our B14 a couple of years ago.  The local vinyl wrapping place (usually did cars and power boats) quoted us £400 to do the underside of the hull.  The main issue they highlighted were that it would need to have a join in it as the cheap rolls were not wide enough to do it in one so would join down the center line, also they couldn't say how long ti would last/how robust it would be.

My guess is it would have been fine, however we didn't want to risk catching it on stones on the beach/nicking it in some way and not being able to repair it.  In the end we settled for a big vinyl logo on the bow and a vinyl covering the foredeck which after 2 years and a trip to Aus and back in a container is still looking very good.  I'm sure it would be fine, we just couldn't afford to take the risk at the time!