well i have made more halo letter
signs than i can remember but never for a boat..but i would imagine the techniques involved would be somewhat similar but i would definitely have a few concerns.
for a halo
sign usually what is done is the raised letters are routed out of acrylic (lets just say 3/4" for our example purposes) and for this example we would only route 1/2" through the material and then we would route a 1/4" flange around the raised letters (essentially an outline).
then we would route the shape of the letters out of aluminum, or some other opaque substrate. and then from the backside we push through the letters and secure with adhesive or mechanical fasteners utilizing the flange.
you can decorate the face of the letters with your choice of vinyl obviously translucent if you want the light to shine through the faces but in most cases we use regular vinyl on the faces so that light just shines out the edges creating the 'halo'. usually we cover the backside with diffuser film to eliminate any bright areas to create an even glow.
so using this technique my big concern would obviously be cutting the shape through the hull of the boat it could definitely be done but in my opinion would be ridiculous, even though it is bad luck to change the name of a boat a future owner may want to and this would make it a fairly major repair.
so i think the way i would modify this would be to create a script type name for the boat where all of the letters were connected. and then route that out of acrylic. then i would flip it over and route a channel out of the backside in which i would enclose a strip of leds and then drill a single hole through the hull of the boat to thread the wires through for power and then adhere the letters to the boat.
definitely doable. or you could also cut do it in two pieces where you cut the channel or the bottom piece but do not cut all the way through the material say 3/4 of the way through whatever thickness creating a 'U' channel and then route another piece and adhere it to the top so that you could encase your strip of led's inside.
