The transom of the BayRaider is quite fat and really lends itself to have a nice transom name board.
However, I did not buy a ready engraved transom name board from the yard with my GRE BayRaider. I wanted to build my own. Here a few hints how to do it.:
The board I got is from
http://www.thaiteakmarine.com/catalog/page43.htm . I got the 25" curved one No. 602 /1 . A very nice and well prepared piece of teakwood.
The first task is to design the name and transfer the design to the board. The name also needs to be curved. For this I used a graphics program 'Serif Draw Plus 8.0', but others may suit as well. I chose a TTF font that comes with most Windows versions, Gaeilge1. When printing that out after designing it, to make it fit onto one standard size printing paper sheet, I rotated it a bit.
Then, position the printout onto the board, put a sheet of carbon paper underneath and use a ballpoint pen to transfer the contour onto the wood.
Next, get some small woodcarving knives (I got a set of ten for a tenner) and start carving out. I improved from letter to letter. Finally I found the best way is to start cutting a V-groove with a V-shaped blade aloung the outer contour and then subsequently carve out the inner of the letter.
Once done that, the board is sanded over and treated with woodstain/preservative, I took Deks Olje No. 1.
Next, the letters are laid out with some paint. Any small mistakes made you can sand or scrape off.
The BR transom is konvex, the teak board is rigid, so how to fit the board without showing big gaps on either side?: For that I sawed vertical 10 mm deep grooves into the back of the board, 20 mm apart. Through this the board gets flexible enough to smooth itself onto the transom curve.
The board then is held to the transom by two hidden 4.8 mm s/s screws. The 4mm drill holes are sealed and protected with an injection of Sikaflex.
Result: Take a look below.
BTW, LLAFURIO is welsh and means: toil, labour.
