Narrowboat Graphics for boat Owners
If a narrowboat is your home, what’s on the hull matters more than it might for a weekend cruiser. Liveaboard owners tend to put real thought into how their boat looks — a well-chosen name, a traditional bow flash, coachlines in exactly the right colour. We produce vinyl graphics for narrowboats and canal cruisers across the UK, from individual name panels to full decorative schemes, and we’ve been doing it long enough to know what works and what doesn’t.
Boat names and lettering
The name is usually the first thing to get right. We cut boat names in any font from a large library, including scripts that suit traditional canal styling, and we can produce custom lettering to match historic artwork or an existing design already on your boat. Standard vinyl comes in over 60 colours; we can also do gold or silver effect lettering if you want the look of traditional painted signwriting without the lead time or cost. Most names read well at 100–150mm height — anything smaller than 75mm starts to lose legibility at distance.
If you’re not sure what you want, the online lettering designer lets you try different fonts and colours before committing to an order.
Traditional canal art and decoration
Roses and castles, bow flashes, coachlines, scrolls, ribbons — traditional canalia is a big part of what makes a narrowboat look finished rather than plain. We stock a wide range of ready-to-order canal art decals and can produce custom designs if you need something specific to your boat. Coachline tape is available in single and double-line formats by the metre, so you run as much as you need. Porthole surrounds and locker panel inserts are also available for boats with standard fittings.
For a full decorative scheme, it’s worth getting in touch rather than ordering piecemeal — we can lay everything out as a set and make sure the elements work together before anything gets cut.
Canal index numbers and SSR registration stickers
Canal & River Trust index numbers must be displayed in a set format: the index number itself, the year of registration, and — depending on the licence type — the CRT logo. We produce these as pre-spaced vinyl sets, cut in the correct font and size, ready to apply. If you’re on coastal or offshore waters rather than inland waterways, SSR (Small Ships Register) numbers follow different display rules; we produce those too.
Safety stickers — fire extinguisher identification, gas warning labels, life jacket location markers — are available individually or as sets, sized to the standards required.
Vinyl that survives year-round outdoor life
Everything we cut is from outdoor-rated vinyl — typically Oracal 651 calendered vinyl for standard work, or Oracal 751 cast vinyl where surfaces have significant curvature or you need a longer rated outdoor life. On a narrowboat moored outside year-round, that distinction matters. Properly applied vinyl on a clean, prepared surface will last five to seven years without fading or edge-lifting. We supply all graphics with transfer tape pre-applied, so the positioning is held correctly during application, and include basic fitting notes with each order.
How to order custom graphics
For standard lettering and stock canalia items, use the product pages on the site. For custom work — non-standard sizes, matching an existing design, multi-panel schemes, or anything decorative — get in touch with a description of what you need and dimensions where you have them. A photo of the area you’re applying to is helpful for anything decorative. We send a proof before cutting on every custom order, so you can check layout and colours before anything goes to production. Turnaround on custom orders is typically two to four working days, dispatched by first class post.
Ready to get started? Send us a message via the contact page with your requirements and we’ll come back to you with a quote and proof. Whether it’s a replacement name panel, a full canal art scheme or a set of index numbers, we’ll get it right before we cut.
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