I used a decal.  They are available in a wide variety of colors, fonts and sizes from a variety of vendors.  I used BoatUS.  

Yep, self-adhesive cut vinyl is your friend in this. if you can sketch what you want it to look like, any number of on-line outfits will create a stick-on decal that’ll outdo your skills as a sign painter and last longer as well. Comes time to refinish, a quick pass w/ hair drier will soften adhesive enough you can peel decal off in seconds.

Heat gun’d work too but use caution with these unless you’re well acquainted with how to control the heating aspect or you can do real damage to what a decal is stuck on.

If you do decide to go with paint instead, you only have to do all that sanding if your paint and varnish are not compatible. Otherwise, just clean the varnish surface and apply the paint.

If you do go with the vinyl lettering, CLC sells it here.

Have fun,

Laszlo

   Hey, thanks for the replies. I've ordered a vinyl stencile from here at CLC, so we'll see how it goes!!! I'll post pics once the project is done.

Vinyl logo/lettering is cheap, easy, repair-replaceable.

Here is mine.