I think that is a recipe for disaster. The reason is that it is highly likely that the plastic adhesive will degrade over time or simply outgass making bubbles visible through the  clear plastic and epoxy. When I had a business mounting and laminating it was always tricky preparing a clear plastic for exterior use.

The advantage of rice paper is that the epoxy actually saturates the paper. The paper is essentially part of the boat. 

The plastic will not be saturated with resin and if the bond between the resin and the plastic deteriorates again you will have bubbles and delamination. Also you can count on the adhesive degrading in the sun and heat and again delaminating bubbling or both. 

Christine

Thank you very much for the very helpful explanation Christine. It makes perfect sense. I will not use this method then. 

Do you see any other way to add white lettering to the boat (since I can't ink white on the rice paper ) ? 

 Best, 

Joe 

How about an onlay made of light-colored wood? Get one of those thin veneers and cut the name out with an exacto knife. Maybe Joey Schott or George Krewson will hop in here with some really expert advice (they both do great onlay work and can tell you where to get suppliesm too).

A light colored onlay would work very well with a wooden deck and it would be as permanent as the deck itself.

Good luck,

Laszlo

I would paint it on. If you have the skill to cut out letters with an exacto then you have the skill to trace the letters and paint them. Mind you the onlay / inlay might look pretty good.

Christine

I think your best and easiest bet is a vinyl graphic, but applied over the final varnish coat. It will peal off when you want to re-varnish, but not before, and is UV repellant. In a saltwater environment it will last longer than your varnish job and the only down side is that the wood under the letters will not fade at the same rate as the exposed wood and you'll have to replace the name in the same spot. A shop like Quick Sign in Ft Lauderdale does thousands of boat names and graphics a year and I'm sure there is a shop near you that can supply. SEEYA Jack

Here is the name I put on my Mill creek 13 done in 23kt gold leaf. decal.

You can get many different types of thin wood veneer from woodcraft.com. Hardwoods can be difficult to cut without splintering but mahogany is pretty easy. Might have to stain it for it to stand out against the color of the deck.

If you really want white, why not experiment with ordinary white paper or light card stock, just cut the design out from that. I'd do a test by fiberglassing over a piece of scrap to make sure that the paper absorbs epoxy evenly and that the resulting color is acceptable

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Ogata (eric) 

 I 100% endorse jacknlin's suggestion above - it will be professionally cut, to any of a million type-faces and colours and sizes, and will resist weather over a very long period.   I have done the same on many small craft (also my various motorcycles) with excellent results - quite inexpensive too!

Bumper sticker?