Vinyl sticker is the fastest way but only good a few years outside. I use them in the reverse for paint masks quite a bit and recommend paint on paint if the design is a single color. Rice paper is great for copier style and size graphics and needs to be incorporated early.

Thank you for the info -- that's exactly what I was looking for. 

About the rice paper, though: I'd rather do the rice paper method, but how would this work? I'd paint the hull red, then apply the rice paper on top of the red paint and coat it with epoxy? And then does that mean I'd have to put a coat of epoxy over the entire hull (not just the section where the rice paper is)?

The rice paper should go on over the red paint after it is dry and you have printed the design on it. It can be applied with a two part varnish, epoxy or clear polyeurthane paint just over the design instead of going over the whole area if you prefer. I use the Epson durabrite inkjet printer that one doesn't bleed when it gets wet. Before doing it on your boat do a small test piece just to know how it will turn out. Nothing more agrivating than having to sand off something and starting over.

Real quick initial test could be to grab a paper with text printed on it and run a highliter over the text.  Did it bleed?  Then the test with rice paper.