Dan Sanders talks to Melony Rocque-Hewitt about how wide-format digital print is becoming part and parcel of the ebb and flow of mariner life.
Dan Sanders is sales director of Coast Graphics situated in Hamble, Hants, which along with Cowes is regarded as the epicenter of UK marine trade and activity. A busy, busy man, the business is booming as increasingly more mariners turn to digital wide-format printing to adorn their crafts.
Sanders has been in the business of marine branding for a number of years. Prior to Coast Graphics, he founded the successful Rule 26, which, underpinned by solvent wide-format print technology, offered a wide range of graphics solutions to anyone in the marine industry from boats to branded vehicles for marine-engaged companies.
At the start of this year however, Sanders submerged Rule 26 into a joint venture with the Oxford-based wide-format print provider City and County Graphics based in Oxfordshire. The new venture, Coast Graphics does everything Rule 26 did and more, with the benefit of resources from sister company City and Country Graphics including increased wide-format production capacity and additional designers and fitters.
According to Sanders there has been an explosion in the demand for marine graphics particularly in the last three years and he believes this will continue to grow. Advances in printer technology, substrates and inks are only part of this equation. He believes that the growing confidence of specialist companies like Coast Graphics is helping to feed the momentum. “People like us are far more confident producing these images and are at ease working with the materials,” he says.
For Sanders, the sea change really occurred about 16 months ago when his company secured Sunsail as an account, initially to carry out the branding of the latter’s new fleet of 42 evenly matched 40ft boats. “We were tasked with the job of doing the branding for all of them” he says. “We helped with the concept and really helped them get what they wanted – a visible boat on the Solent. We demonstrated to them what was possible with the media and that included full branding on the sails.”
Unwittingly the Sunsail account changed the dynamics of the business. In order to win the business Sanders bought an HP LJ52500, a latex 60in printer that was installed in-house. Prior to this all wide-format graphics work was outsourced and usually produced on solvent machines.
“We were at that point prior to purchasing the HP that we found we were outsourcing more and more but we wanted greater control. We wanted to decide on the materials. The Sunsail work involved us printing to an adhesive backed polyester to go on the sails, but this didn’t work with solvent output,” says Sanders.
The purchase of the latex machine has been a huge boost. “The Sunsail work can involve producing 42 decals and then a couple of days later taking these off and applying new ones. We didn’t need to laminate, turnaround was rapid, and the machine was very easy to use.”
As far as full boat wraps are concerned, Sanders has noticed a trend for semi-permanent applications, particularly where boat owners don’t want to commit time, energy and money to painting their boats - they have them wrapped instead. Typically a 45ft boat takes up to two weeks to paint but the same vessel can be wrapped in two to three days, and removed later – typically a year later – without damage.
In the main, Coast Graphics deals with the sporting side of the marine industry, and here the requirement for visibility is high. Not only do some classes have rules that state that boats should to be fully branded but also says Sanders, sponsors are always looking for ways to get more for their patronage.
Sails apparently are not flat! Most race sails are actually produced on a 3D mould and because of this says Sanders, it is very difficult to print directly to them. Attempts to fabricate graphics into sails by some enterprising individuals have not worked either.
To achieve full graphical coverage on sails, Coast Graphics either uses good old-fashioned paint or outputs digitally printed cast vinyl or polyester fabric that is then stuck to sails using what Sanders describes as his ‘secret’ process.
The branding of performance clothing is part and parcel of the Coast Graphics offering. Heat press, print and cut using the latex printer works very well and where necessary the company outsources dye sublimation and embroidery work.
And next? The company is now looking at investing in UV flatbed technology to add to its portfolio. “We couldn’t do what we do without wide-format digital print technology,” says Sanders. “Our customers want impact and visibility at affordable costs. There is no way you can do this without print.”
GAC Pindar
Global logistics firm, GAC formed a partnership with well known sailing team Pindar in order to explore and exploit the marine shipping sector. Through its support across a wide variety of high profile sailing events, Coast Graphics was tasked to establish and produce a consistent and visually attractive branding package across a number of different classes of boats.
The Challenge
GAC Pindar competes in a number of events such as the Extreme Sailing Series, the World Match Racing Tour and also has a tie-in with a Farr 45, racing on the popular big boat circuit on the south coast. Designing and producing a consistent image across this wide range of activities, whilst ensuring that graphics did not impede performance in any way, was the challenge Coast Graphics had to meet.
Extreme Sailing Series
The boat is a 40ft high-performance racing catamaran, high speed and highly competitive and both hulls need to be as smooth and as light as possible. The decision was made to use a combination of a hull painted in the distinctive Mediterranean Blue of Pindar, fading to black, with the application of the Pindar ‘Arctic Tern’ logo and coloured flashes on the bow in vinyl and the GAC Pindar logo further back on the hull. The whole package was then over-lacquered with a clear epoxy to retain the smooth finish required. The sails were branded with a combination of paint and digitally printed logos. Logos were output using the HP LJ 25500 using Latex technology onto Metamark MD7 vinyl that conforms to the necessary movement in the sails. Due to Latex inks, the graphics did not need to be laminated – reducing weight.
World Match Race Tour
The World Match Racing tour is a Formula 1 style world series that pits one team against another in a boat on boat series around the world. The only branding that is allowed is on the crew itself. What this meant was Coast Graphics needed to get the fullest coverage possible on technical sailing wear. Again the latex printer came into its own – printing onto Easmark cotton and contour cutting meant that Coast Graphics could produce high quality, consistent and colourfast colour for its crew clothing, without damaging either the waterproof or breathing capabilities of the kit.
Farr 45
Perhaps the most impressive use of wide-format printing involves the production of full hull wraps. The Farr 45 ‘Espresso Martini’ was decked out in Team GAC Pindar colours for the 2011/2012 season. When a boat gets to this size (a 45 ft race boat) – a full respray paint job is costly both in terms of time and money. Coast Graphics’ ability to print using its latex printer onto cast vinyl means that it can reproduce almost any graphics which can be wrapped onto the boats for a semi permanent rebrand. The Farr 45 was printed onto Metamark MD7 and laminated in order to help cope with the harsh and salty marine environment. Wrapping took place over the course of a single day prior to the boats first outing in its new colours during Cowes Week 2011. Completed in only two panels per side, it tied in nicely with the GAC Pindar Extreme 40 and completes an impressive looking family!