S/V Yara was born as Shingebiss II 40 years ago in the fall of 1984. Since then we’ve made many improvements (Including updating her name! Could you imagine calling out those 12 characters over the VHF using the phonetic alphabet?!? No thanks, friend!) as documented on YouTube.

For her 40th birthday, we wanted to make a splash. So we gave Yara an internal facelift like no other. We gave her an interior makeover with a 3M vinyl wrap. Nearly every vertical bulkhead surface was wrapped in 3M DI-NOC. Specifically, we chose the design called Nuno (Textile) NU-2177.

*Photo showing the material we selected.*

But what is a vinyl wrap?

By now you’ve probably seen cars, trucks, and even boat exteriors wrapped in vinyl. These guys even vinyl wrapped a Bugatti Chiron; a supercar that can achieve speeds of over 250 mph!

Vinyl wrap is a flexible, self-adhesive, scratch-UV-resistant material that can withstand the harsh environment of the exterior of a car, so why not use it for the interior of a boat?

So that’s what we did! We covered virtually every vertical bulkhead surface with vinyl wrap.

Why?

Yara’s 40-year-old interior bulkheads had seen three circumnavigations and multiple changes and iterations. Countless screw holes, dozens of cutouts for gauges/screens/switches/panels/instruments, scratches, sun fading, and other imperfections.

The original wood color was dark and uninviting. We wanted to lighten and brighten.

Paint vs Vinyl - Durability is the Difference

We could have painted. Lots of people paint the interior of boats. It’s economical, DIY friendly, and if done correctly it looks good.

But the big problem with paint is scratches. Any little abrasion such as a fingernail, a bump from a tool, or chafing could create imperfections in an otherwise perfect paint.

The vinyl wrap we chose will be more durable than paint. In 3M’s documentation, there was no observed wear-through of the surface finish after dragging a 2.2-pound abrasion wheel across the surface for 7,000 cycles!

Preparation

Another reason for choosing vinyl was the preparation. No matter if we decide to paint or vinyl, the preparation is key. And the level of preparation effort would be the same for either.

Any surface imperfection (gouge, scratch, crack, hole, dent, etc.) was going to telegraph through paint. Imperfections would also show through the vinyl (although arguably less of a concern). So since we had to complete the same amount of prep for either material, why not choose the material that is more durable in the long run?

As is any job like this, prep, prepare, and more preparation is vital. We cleaned, sanded, patched, faired, sanded, and cleaned and cleaned and sanded and sanded and cleaned and cleaned every vertical surface of the boat interior that was to be wrapped.

Let’s look at the process for a simple small screw hole:

Clean the entire bulkhead with acetone. Clean before starting work so as not to spread contaminants, oils, grease, etc.
Sand the entire surface of the bulkhead. Sanding the whole bulkhead meant we had to touch the whole bulkhead which meant we visually inspected the entire bulkhead. The sanding revealed imperfections that we may have missed with just a visual inspection.
Clean around the hole with acetone. Clean again so that we don’t further contaminate our tools and the surrounding surface area.
Use a countersink drill bit on a drill to enlarge the hole. Yes, this sounds odd. If we’re fixing a hole, why make it bigger? It’s because the chamfer angle will give the fill material more surface area to bond to.
Sand flat and smooth the edges of the hole so they don’t protrude higher than the surface of the bulkhead.
Clean in and around the hole with acetone.
Choose a fill material. Initially, we started with thickened epoxy. And while it worked to fill the holes, it took more time to mix, took longer to cure, and when it cured it was harder to sand back to a smooth and flat surface. We smartened up and switched to EZ-Fair from Petit. This was easier to mix, cured more quickly, was buttery smooth to apply, and was infinitely easier to sand than thickened epoxy.
Mix material and fill. Follow the material mixing instructions (usually these are two parts) and fill the hole using a flexible putty knife or an old credit card.
Pro-tip - do the above for multiple screw holes at the same time!
Wait for the fill material to cure and sand back smooth and even.
Clean again.

We did that on virtually every single interior surface. The only interior bulkhead surfaces we didn’t touch were 1) the inside walls of the shower stall. The shower was considered out of scope for this project and we’ll be doing a different shower remodel in the future. And 2) the front of the battery box is pitted and holed from leaking battery acid long ago. This will need to be rebuilt with fresh plywood, epoxy, and fiberglass at a future date.

For larger holes (such as cutouts for a gauge, switch, screen, instrument, etc.) we couldn’t just fill the hole with a fairing compound. For these larger holes we cut out a similar-sized piece of marine grade plywood of the same thickness (for our boat ¾” ply is common), slotted it into the hole with thickened epoxy all around the edges and then layed up multiple layers of fiberglass wetted out with epoxy. Once that was cured, we could follow the 11 steps above to sand it down to a smooth surface and use the fairing compound for any low spots.

Some holes we didn’t want to be filled. Holes such as where hinges need to be re-installed for cabinet/locker doors. When doing the prep work we left small pieces of tape next to every hole we needed to preserve for later. We asked the installers to poke holes through the vinyl at each one of these marked holes and they did! It’s going to make the installation of the cabinet doors so much easier knowing where the hinge holes are.

*Photo showing the sanding prep, and the filling of a few small holes. And the filling of one larger hole (above the portlight) from an old instrument.*

Application

We paid the professionals at Clean Cut Install https://www.cleancutinstall.com/ to do this job. We paid fully out of pocket and they don’t know we’re writing this blog. Clean Cut was responsive, professional, communicative, had strong attention to detail, and was quick to finish the job. While they hadn’t done a boat interior before, they were open to the challenge. We chose a professional to do the installation because 3M requires their installers to attend a certification class/course before they can do installations.

Opportunities for Improvement

Overall, the project was a success. We don’t have any issues to report but there are some opportunities for improvement and lessons learned.

Opportunity 1 - Fairing Compound: use a fairing compound for the smaller screw holes from the start. Skip the thickened epoxy to fill small holes.

Opportunity 2 - Order more material than you think: measure and total the square footage of your surfaces to be wrapped and order more material than you think you’ll need. You’ll also want leftover material to keep on hand for repairs and to wrap new surfaces to match in the future. We should have ordered a full roll of material from the start. The installers ran out of material halfway through the job and we had to pause to order another roll. And that proved challenging as we sourced the very last roll of our selected material color/style in the whole USA!

Opportunity 3 - Get multiple quotes: shop around for installers if you can. While cheaper installation labor isn’t always better, it’s wise to do your due diligence. Where we live 3M certified installers are relatively few. We were ghosted by multiple installers. One even missed their initial appointment without even calling to cancel! Clean Cut was the clear winner, but that’s because they were the only ones who showed up and were professional. Your area may have a wider selection of qualified and professional installers.

Cost

While budget was a concern, visual appeal and long-term durability were more important factors for us. Besides, it’s Yara’s 40th birthday! Who wouldn’t want a complete makeover facelift for their 40th after sailing around the world three times? Girl was tired!

Material cost:

First order: 328 sq feet, half roll - $1,875.00

Second order: 328 sq feet, half roll - $1,875.00

Labor cost:

Site visit prior to job starting: $200.00

Interior wrap labor: $5,950.00

Total cost:

$9,900.00

Was it cheaper than painting ourselves? Probably not. But we knew that going into this project. We’re sharing our costs so that you can use this information to make an informed decision should you choose to research a similar project.

Current State

As of this writing in September 2024 the wrap has been installed for 4 months and we’ve had zero issues. During this time it has endured 100+ degrees Fahrenheit with 20% humidity in the hot July/August weather and 45 degrees Fahrenheit with 70%+ humidity in this early fall weather.

Any issues with the materials were a direct result of our mistakes! Matt dropped a clamp when installing a ceiling panel and a sharp metal part hit a wrapped bulkhead. The only damage was a slight imperfection in the wrap surface. Matt was also screwing in a screw with his drill. The bit slipped out of the screw head and dented the vinyl. Dented only! It didn’t puncture it.

Any damage we’ve caused can easily be repaired with a dab of white caulking.

Conclusion

Would we do it again? You betcha. It’s expensive and time-consuming but we feel the results are worth it for us. Preparation was key and took the most time. But the same amount of prep would be needed if we were to paint. So why not class it up a notch and go with the vinyl wrap?

Vinyl Wrapping Boat Interior