A finger nail or a credit card will help to lift an edge.
Just keep pulling Slooooly and evenly.
They should come right off.
It is not as difficult as you might think.
Just take your time, If they keep breaking, you are pulling too fast.
A little heat from a from a Hair Dryer often helps.
Heat gun or hair dryer to help release the adhesive and soften the vinyl. Fingernail or PLASTIC razor blade to lift the edge. Pull and peel away. If there is any residue left behind use "goo gone" to remove it. It's a citrus adhesive remover that wont harm the gel coat.
Note: Sometimes a slightly raised shadow of the graphic stays in the gel coat. There is nothing you can do about this.
what they said....... also, pull them slowly at a sharp angle. Keep re-gripping the old sticker close to the base so it wont stretch and break. They should come off fairly clean. If you're removing an old state registration sticker, it will most likely have a backing that separates from the sticker (to avoid transfering them from boat to boat) and is much harder to get off. Using goof off and a plastic scraper multiple times worked for this - with some elbow grease!!
Heat gun to warm up the old adhesive and gently scrape away the old number witih a plastic tool to avoid new scratches in the Gel-coat.
Using a mild solvent (fingernail polish remover) worked really well for me when removing the glue residue, since most of it came off with just a little rubbing. By going only in one direction, I was able to roll it off like the rubber cement strips on your "junk mail" cards.
After that it was just wiping down with an alcohol pad to remove any reamaining residue and I was ready to apply the new hull numbers.
