I have used the boards method for many years, but they keep on breaking or the holding point keeps coming lose.

I bought the new lettering kit over a month ago, but haven't put it on yet. I had to wait to buy the out of stock hypalon glue. Make sure you have plenty on hand, those letters cover a big area.

Now I'll admit to being a bit of a miser, but almost $50 for dingy numbers is beyond me.

I had plastic plates attached to the dingy by glue on attachments, but they were ripped off when the dink flipped while being towed in a big following sea. I haven't replaced them yet, but after looking at several dinks at a recent anchor out, I'm going to go with a homemade set of number boards that I'll bungee to points built in to the dingy. They should stay put even in the dink is flipped again.

I know they will not look as good as the glue on professionally made ones, there are just too many other places where $50 will go further on my boat.

Being a frugal sailboater, after trying glue on numbers which came off the dinghy when I added some air in the tubes, I went to buy a stencil to spray paint my numers onto my inflatable. I met a sailing buddy on the way into the store and I told him the reason I was at the store. He said he had a complete stencil number set and I could use his. I went to Home Depot and bought a can of black spry paint and sprayed the numers on the dink with the stencils.

I cut off a piece of old Marine Plywood I had in the garage, drilled a couple of holes in it, spry painted it a couple of times with the left over can of spray paint, glued on the State decal and hang it over the port side of the inflatable next to the numbers when I put her in the water.

A couple of years ago we were at the strickly Sail show in Chicago and bought the same number plates. Getting the proper glue and ruffing up the area where the numbers went on the dink. They have come off. The only thing as I think back I did not do is to ruff up the back of the number plate. After ruffing it up I used alcohol as a wipe to clean the area before the glue. These were on a Zodiac FR285. Hope this is of some help in what to look out for.

Randy

I still believe T/T is the way to go, but I have been fighting with the green police for two seasons, finally I gave up and registered it.

I ordered the ones from WM you send them your reg numbers and they come on a Hyplon strip for each side I gad the AB dealer put them on that was an additional $50

OK so I'm cheap, but not the only cheap guy around. A guy on another forum told me to do this. Make a template in Word of your licence number and print it out. Cut out the numbers with an Xacto knife or something else sharp. Put the paper on the dinghy with tape and fill in the numbers with black (or whatever) magic marker. It will last several years he said. He is a Fla/Bahamas guy. I did this 4 years ago on our dinghy. I have not had to redo it since, the side that faces the sun is a little faded, might need to redo it in another couple of years.

Cost - about zero. Functionality - priceless.

I ordered the number plates earlier this year and have been happy with them. I also got the boat name plates. Have folded up the dingy for storage a number of times and there have been no problems. I was careful in preparing the dingy by following the instructions and letting the plates set and dry for 24 hours. They look nice and nowhere near as tacky as some dingy naming schemes.
John Meyer,
Hilbre 2135
San Pedro CA

Hey Bstreet

That Was A Great Idea