Sign writer has spelt my boat name wrong..any ideas ?

[Brogden]

We have just had the boat completely repainted. The finishing touch was the boat name, which has been spelt wrong. Any ideas how he can sort it without destroying the brand new paint underneath ?

[magnetman]

Thats bad. I suppose it'd need to be stripped back to bare steel - maybe you could have it rearranged so that the name is written on some sort of decorated background?

[Ray T]

Did you put the boat name in writing when you instructed the yard / painter?

 

If so, and they got it wrong, I would point this out to them and ask for the fault to be rectified at the yard's / painter's expense and to your satisfaction. If it was word of mouth I'm not sure how you stand.

 

P.S. welcome to the forum.

Edited December 7, 2014 by Ray T

[frangar]

Very fine cutting compound might work...and some patience......I'm sure the esteemed boat painters & sign writers of this parish will be along with better ideas soon.

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

[madcat]

Change the name to match the spelling.

 

Someone will be along soon to tell you about the GU boats with wrong spelled names

 

I'm sorry, I know you must be very disappointed and hopefully the painter or sign writer will put it right.

Edited December 7, 2014 by madcat

[Starcoaster]

Assuming you are all agreed that it was the signwriter's error and not yours in writing it down, I should say it's not your problem, and is up to the signwriter to fix, regardless of what that costs him to do so. Presumably he is insured, being a professional, which should cover the cost of correcting the problem if it proves prohibitive.

Interested to know what the correct and actual versions were?

[Brogden]

It's in writing. And the sign writer has been decent enough to admit his mistake. My concern is the lasting effect on the paint underneath. I will see what solution they come up with tomorrow. Wish I'd joined the forum in happier circumstances. I've been reading posts for years but have never needed to post before. Thanks people.

I'll wait and see what they say tomorrow before I name my boat and embarrass anyone.. That is certainly not my intention of this post. I would just like my paint sorting.

[LoneWolf]

It's in writing. And the sign writer has been decent enough to admit his mistake. My concern is the lasting effect on the paint underneath. I will see what solution they come up with tomorrow. Wish I'd joined the forum in happier circumstances. I've been reading posts for years but have never needed to post before. Thanks people.

I'll wait and see what they say tomorrow before I name my boat and embarrass anyone.. That is certainly not my intention of this post. I would just like my paint sorting.

 

I expect a professional will know the best way to sort it

 

chin up - at least it wasn't a tattoo

[dave moore]

Been there- done that...a few times over a long career!

 

The only solution I can suggest is that the panel containing the lettering is flatted, repainted then re-written. Nobody's no deal solution, everyone's nightmare. The problem arises because the signwriter is concentrating on the mechanics of manipulating the brush, rather than the literal context.

 

Years ago, I had to letter Lichfield Cathedral in a small panel which had previously held a short 4 or 5 letter name. The first side was fine, the second it became an Irish boat...Lichfield Catedral....I'd missed out the H in cramped planning. Luckily I spotted the error quickly, and floods of white spirit, rag etc got rid of the cock up....I wasn't best pleased at having to re-do the whole thing!

 

Hopefully all this will resolve easily, if uncomfortably.....if I can help further, PM me.

 

Cheers

 

Dave

[koukouvagia]

You are not the first one to suffer this misfortune. One of the Wyvern hire fleet boats went round for ages called "Splended".

[koukouvagia]

Now that Dave, a true professional, has admitted to a mistake, I feel I can somewhat shamefacedly admit to one I made.

I had just lettered my new cloths when I realised that I'd put the butty's fleet number 267, instead of the correct one 211. I'd done this not once, but six times!

Fortunately, I was using a special vinyl paint which came off easily with acetone. If I had been unable to redo the stenciling, I would have had to leave the number and wait to see if anyone noticed!

[FadeToScarlet]

Triagulum

Glaxy

Fulbourne

Edgeware (when with BW)

Berkhampstead

Bilster

Glossor

 

(From Pete Harrison's list here

Edited December 7, 2014 by FadeToScarlet

[FadeToScarlet]

Edit to add- much more convenient if they'd mis lettered the index number........

[matty40s]

It really is down to how small or large a mistake it is, whether the painting is within a panel, or in more than one place.

Letters can be changed, panels can be repainted and then signwritten again. The earlier you get a mistake rectified, the easier it is to do.

Edited December 7, 2014 by matty40s

[David Mack]

Triagulum

Glaxy

Fulbourne

Edgeware (when with BW)

Berkhampstead

Bilster

Glossor

 

(From Pete Harrison's list here

 

Fulbourne is not necessarily a misspelling. It is the old name for the Cambridgeshire village of Fulbourn, and was used by the railway (lending some credence to the theory that the GU Town Class names were taken from a railway directory). It is also the spelling used by a road in London E17.

 

[DeanS]

You could leave it, and it would make a great conversation piece in time to come....

 

Why's your boat named that....?

Oh...the painter got it wrong.

Oh.....cool!

 

 

LOL

[Burgiesburnin]

The "modern" way is for people to deny responsibility for their mistakes and blame someone else.

It's commendable that the sign writers have admitted that it was their fault.

Obviously, that isn't the end of the story yet before they have made good on their mistake.

As eager as we may be to name and shame we should be just as eager to give credit where it is due.

I would be interested to know the final out one of this.

[Maffi]

You could just tell him to put it right and give you a call when has done it.

Edited December 8, 2014 by Maffi

[Beaker]

One of the Shakespeare hire boats at Mercia has its name spelt wrongly at one end, "Cymberline."

 

It grates on me every time I see it.

[BlueStringPudding]

 

Fulbourne is not necessarily a misspelling. It is the old name for the Cambridgeshire village of Fulbourn, and was used by the railway (lending some credence to the theory that the GU Town Class names were taken from a railway directory). It is also the spelling used by a road in London E17.

 

 

Neither is Berkhampstead, necessarily. It's been written with different spellings in different documents over the decades/centuries. I've seen it written as Berkhamsted, Berkhamstead, Berkhampsted and Berkhampstead. I suspect the boatpainter picking whichever spelling could claim it was taken from parish records / the school / the Domesday Book / The History of the County of Hertford / the train station, accordingly

[dave moore]

More on this...

 

Perhaps before the Lichfield episode, at the same yard, I had to letter " Quercus ". That's how I'd seen it spelt on yard paperwork. I was setting it out when one of the directors appeared. He opined that the spelling should be QUERQUS. That's what I wrote...no problem.

Many years later I was at the foot of the Watford flight with Resolute, waiting to go up. A boat joined the queue behind me, Quercus on the cabin side....in conversation, I broached the question of spelling....

 

" Oh, we are sure" she said " we are members of the Arboreal Society " ( or some such ). Me...still not sure!

 

A few years ago, Latin caught me out again. Bear in mind that I was removed from the Latin stream at the tender age of 12 at school.

I went to letter a boat at Warwick. The coach painter showed me a photo on his phone of what had been there previously, a name in an arc with a Latin phrase that translated as " Never a dull moment ". The first word I saw as Nunquam, which I duly painted. Job done. Several days later I had the painter on the phone.

 

" The customer loves the job, Dave" he told me " but he says it should be spelled Numquam. Don't worry, I've told him you' ve gone on holiday". I was pondering possible solutions, really didn't want to go down the flat and repaint route. A week later, he was back on the phone....

 

" You jammy bastard. The customer was talking to a bloke in a pub who was a Latin scholar, he said that Nunquam is an acceptable alternative spelling. You're off the hook! " Phew!!

This next might help the OP. Having signwritten a truck cab, the customer called to tell me that the phone number was wrong. 2 digits were the wrong way round. This time, it wasn't my fault, I'd been working from a piece of paper with the information written on and the author had hade the error. Here I was able to remove the digits with judiciously applied Nitromors ( it worked in those days ), cut the panel back and repaint the numbers. That could be a possible way forward in this case. My heart goes out to the poor sod who got it wrong. If he ever reads this, I hope he gleans a crumb of comfort knowing he's not the only one.

 

Dave

[Phil Ambrose]

On more than one occasion the spelling of our boat name has been questioned,once with great chortle's of laughter amid cries of " oh look he can't spell two"

Amber Rose Too as in also because our first boat was Amber Rose.

Phil Ambrose

[koukouvagia]

 

On a slightly different tack. I am amused when someone tries to give a boat a Latin name, but gets the grammar wrong. For example, I want to take a correcting pen to "Secundus Navis" every time I see it. (Navis is feminine.Also, if I'm being really pedantic - which I am - navis is a word more suited to a large seagoing vessel)

 

edited because I was making a point already covered.

Edited December 8, 2014 by koukouvagia

[mark99]

I seem to recall a boat adorned with

 

G.U.C.C.C.Co

[Athy]

You are not the first one to suffer this misfortune. One of the Wyvern hire fleet boats went round for ages called "Splended".

Their signwriter obviously did not pay attention in his English lessons at school. Wyvern's also had a boat named 'Bullrush' conjuring up an image of a hurtling bovine rather than, as surely intended, a tranquil aquatic plant.

 

I am sure, too, that I have seen an old-looking boat, perhaps an ex-icebreaker, with the name 'Antartic' in large letters on her side. This may have been intentional - perhaps the boat bends in the middle - but I doubt it.