During the First World War, the British Navy developed a ship-decorating technique called “dazzle.” Comprising complex patterns of geometric shapes in contrasting colors, the goal of dazzle—which was later adopted by the US Navy—was to create kind of a giant floating optical illusion, and thus making it difficult for enemy vessels to accurately target a Royal Navy ship, or even gauge what direction the ship was moving.

Flash forward 100 years or so, and a new kind of “dazzle” has hit the high seas: a gold vinyl-wrapped yacht.

Over the years, I have written about print service providers that specialize in car wraps, truck wraps, bus and train graphics, even speedboat graphics. UK-based LuxWraps pecializes in a highly exclusive and specific niche: yacht graphics. “Our focus is on delivering a top-tier wrapping service to top-tier clients,” said a LuxWrap spokesperson. Like just about every graphics provider, LuxWrap has to be able to offer fast-turnaround—which can be difficult enough for everyday graphics projects, but becomes even more of challenge when they have to wrap a big boat. As an example, LuxWrap once wrapped a 60-meter hull in 6.5 days—in the water.