Boat Name requirements

[dmksails]

My boat is Coast Guard registered. I've gone online and found that the Coast Guard requires the boat name be in letters at least 4 inches high.

If I do that, the name of my boat is going to be 3-ft long! I'm thinking that letters between 3 and 3.5 inches tall will look much better. My boat is a Tashiba-31 with a canoe transom.

Has anyone every had trouble with their name being too small?

[sailorboy1]

I doubt the CG is going to show up with a measuring tape. But I see little difference between following the rules and having a 3 foot long name and not following the rules and having one that is 2.5 feet long.

[iyamwhatiyam]

Choose a narrow font and/or one that has variable spacing.
DaFont - Download fonts

[Shrew]

I don't see any problem with a 3 foot name. Take a look at boats and roughly measure a few names. They are longer than you think, and will look small from a distance anyway. The point is to be able to read it at a distance.

[boatpoker]

change the name ! It must be one helluva radio hail.

[JPA Cate]

dmksails,

No idea where you are, or what size your boat is [you might fill in a bit more of the avatar data because it helps others help you] but it is not only the Coast Guard who care about letter size. In CA, they must be CG size, and also not faded, for instance. And, of course, the name is easiest to read in larger than 4" size, any, and in uncluttered font.

What we have seen a lot is a two line name on a canoe stern, with the hailing port information in a different color below that.

on edit: the time it takes to say the number of letters you have to spell out phonetically over VHF is an issue many people don't about before they name a boat, but boatpoker's hinting that it can make your life easier to re-name the boat something short, like "Bob", one we saw once, instead of "Insatiable", which takes a longer time to do.

Ann

[meridian28]

Being documented, you can put the name on the sides of the hull. I've seen these and they look good. Hailing port on stern.


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