The name game

Deepa Bharath

If you’re in the boat business, you’ve probably worked on “famous”

boats at some point.

Robert Kline has had his share of celebrity clients in his 25

years of being in the business of boat lettering. Kline’s Costa Mesa

design shop, Design Dynamics, specializes in creating designs and

name plates for boats docked anywhere from Los Angeles to Newport

Beach.

He’s delivered name plates to Julie Andrews in Marina del Rey,

Peter Sellers and one of John Wayne’s sons, he says.

“But the unfortunate part of it is you don’t get to meet the

famous people,” he said. “Usually it’s the skipper of the boat who

deals with us.”

Kline’s job may not be all that glamorous, but it certainly is

interesting, challenging and specialized, he said. Usually, the

letters seen on the boat are designed and printed on a roll of

adhesive vinyl that is pasted on to the vessel. Kline also caters to

customers who request customized jobs such as hand painting or metal

work.

The most challenging job he undertook was for a 150-foot yacht for

a wealthy Russian businessman, Kline said.

“He wanted the name of the boat to be in polished stainless

steel,” he said. “So we cut the metal with laser and when we were

done, it had a mirror effect. Looked pretty good.”

What makes the job fun is also the creativity of many of the boat

owners, Kline says.

“I’ve never come across a repetition in names,” he said. “Even if

it is the same name, it’s a different spelling.”

Among his favorites are Jack, the heart surgeon, who called his

boat Jack of Hearts, and the two doctors who owned a boat they called

Pair-a-docs. Kline also does lettering for the U.S. Coast Guard and

the Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and the state lifeguards, he

said.

Boat fashions change with time, too, Kline said. Colors that were

fashionable 10 years ago are not today.

“Gray and burgundy were popular colors in the ‘80s,” he said. “In

the early ‘90s, the pastels were popular, and now it’s black and gold

or black and silver or gray.”