Beneteau Vinyl Cabin Stripes: Good, Bad, Ugly

Beginning the ugly process of scraping the stripes off with the razor blade w/blow dryer. Care must be taken not to harm the gelcoat. Notice the bottom stripe's glue residue left, this removed in the next step - Click for full.

Audrey tackling vinyl stripe removal armed with dryer/razor

Count yourself a lucky soul if you own a 10 year old or so "First series" boat and your cabin striping is neither cracked nor terribly faded. In other words, most Beneteau First series have striping that has been damaged by the one/two shot of sun and age. My First 235 stripes looked horrible at best and the first thing I said to myself when I saw them was, "the stripes have GOT to GO."

If you take a look at the photos page on this site, you will notice several shots of F235 sans stripes, this in an attempt to see the aesthetics without. Well, I have never been a fan of stripes, especially of the vinyl variety, but I have to say the shape of the First series stripes does add to the overall appearance as it seems to impart a slightly less bulbous quality to the doghouse area. I am actually still contemplating which path to take. The new stripes from Beneteau come in around $250 or so, surely not pocket change (Larry Pockras provides an excellent alternative below, however). I generally think clean beats busy any day.

Removing the stripes is not a task one will cherish, especially when cracked to the level as seen above. Fortunately, I found that a carefully applied razor knife of the variety above can do the job without too much difficulty if used with a steady hand and even pressure. The key is to get the stripe started right, then proceed with an even pace. The blow dryer helped soften the vinyl and glue somewhat with a summer sun aiding the process. Stripes don't get much worse than the sample you see above and we had both sides done in 90 minutes. Of course, one is then left with some very pesky glue residue. Several products remove this with plain Lighter Fluid which is composed of "Naptha" probably as good as anything. The high dollar 3M product uses this as well. Some suggest WD-40 which will work but needs to be washed off. Goo-Gone just seems to be too weak to do the job. Regardless, soaking a towel and placing it on the residue can help. Use an old credit card as an aid. One nice thing, if you do want the stripes, you will still be able to see where the old ones went, even after glue removal.

Beneteau First 235 Cabin Stripes Comments and Files in Illustrator 8 courtesy of Larry Pockras To make copies of your Beneteau 235 cabin graphics, go to your local sign maker. Take both of the provided files with you (you can decide which style you like old or new) and he will open either one or both for you and cut portions on navy blue vinyl - if that is your color preference - and other on gold vinyl. Price it at more than one place, as you will find a wide variety of prices from shop to shop. DOWNLOAD FILES Illustrator 8 files for the Beneteau First 235 cabin graphics, each suitable for taking to your local sign maker to duplicate. See examples below in color. Beneteau Stripes Old Beneteau Stripes New Note: Rename extension to .ai after download Next, you take the cut vinyl home, which should have transfer release paper on the outside, and paper on the adhesive side. You line up your graphic, tape into position at the top with a few pieces of masking tape, carefully pull off the paper backing, slowly position and gently pat down the striping, and finally use a plastic squeegee to burnish the tape down. Talk to your sign maker about this part. He may also install your graphic for an additional fee. Prior to burnishing, if you had gently patted, and things were amiss, you may be able to reposition. Forget it once the item(s) is/are burnished. Once burnished, remove the transfer release from the front of the stripes. Be CAREFUL around delicate cutouts, as the transfer paper may tear the vinyl. ALSO, make sure all of the paper is removed from the adhesive side before you start placing the graphics. Again, sometimes the paper tears around delicate cutouts, and you do not want to find out that some paper remained AFTER you burnished the item. - Larry Pockras see Larry's Owner Profile via Beneteau-Owners.com Editors Note: The stripes in the actual Illustrator 8 files to download are not in color. The actual colors are labeled in the file however. They are Pantone 282 (blue) and Pantone 138 (gold). See larger versions below saved as .jpg Above is the original font and logo with seahorse circa 1989 - click for full view Above is the newer font and logo with Beneteau "B" - click for full view