The true boat renaming ritual

[Bull City]

This might be more your speed these days, Gouv!

Meow.

 

[Blue Crab]

My new boat had a small plaque with the name and "christened 1981." It was a name I could live with. I was relieved. This name stuff is serious business.

 

[Jim in Halifax]

My 52 year-old boat has had the same name through four owners. I have met many people who tell me: "oh, I sailed on her in 19XX" or "I crewed for ---- on the Marblehead race". I would never rename her, although sometimes it feels like I married the girl who 'got around' in her youth...

 

[Alaris]

My new boat is on her third name with as many owners so I do not feel a need to stick with the (seriously stupid) current name.

 

[Gouvernail]

This might be more your speed these days, Gpub

You really need to do another drive by lunch. We have a retired Apple guy hanging around the shop who I believe would combine with you for fascinating conversations.

 

[Gouvernail]

I wouldn’t last a week.

But what a way to go!!!

 

[chester]

There's a much shorter thing by author John someone. I have used it in the past, being unable to find a virgin of legal age to drink and be willing to pee in semi-public.

i would have like to seen your efforts here: "hey there young lady, you look of legal drinking age, are you a virgin and if so would you be willing piss on my boat"?

Slap...911.

 

[sAiLiNg AnArChY]

I kept the old name on the stern and put the new name of the sides. Since nobody can pronounce either, on the radio I use Echo Delta November (except in the UK - Edward Duff Nuts)

 

[Captain Ketamine]

I’ve been lucky enough not to get a boat with a name I couldn’t cope with.

I thought the name changing was a dark art requiring just one goat, lots of rum and hopefully no regrets…

L

 

[Kiwi Clipper]

Names, including boat names, have different meanings for different people. And if one thing is clear from the discussion, there is no one mariner defined approach. Thus the renaming ceremony kind of reflects the new owner's view. For some, it has very little meaning, for others, a lot. Some people put great store by the name then treat the boat consistent with the name and over time for them and maybe others, the boat comes to fulfill the name. I would just add that to treat the boat with dignity, the renaming service should, at a minimum, involve thanking the boat for its service as "prior name" and starting it off with an expression of hope and a blessing honoring the service it will render in its new name.

 

[TwoLegged]

i would have like to seen your efforts here: "hey there young lady, you look of legal drinking age, are you a virgin and if so would you be willing piss on my boat"?

Slap...911.

What you need to do is to normalise this, by making it a formal religion.

If your ritual is led by ordained priests, then you can get away with lots. You can recruit and train the young virgins, and have their parents very proud of their children's key role in the Church of Renaming. 999 calls won't disrupt that.

And if the priests are Irish, then they can grope and rape the kids to their hearts content, while their superiors cover it all up. And when the horrible truth leaks out decades later, the Irish govt will pay the billions of Euros of compensation.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

And if the priests are Irish, then they can grope and rape the kids to their hearts content, while their superiors cover it all up. And when the horrible truth leaks out decades later, the Irish govt will pay the billions of Euros of compensation.

Don’t just accuse the Irish priests, that shit is systemic

Is net finally closing on US priest who allegedly abused ‘countless’ children? | US news | The Guardian

FBI agents have questioned Lawrence Hecker, 91, who worked as a Catholic priest in New Orleans until 2002 despite the archdiocese being aware of molestation accusation since 1988

amp.theguardian.com

 

[Alaris]

Alright alright take it to GA or PA or whatever

 

[TwoLegged]

Don’t just accuse the Irish priests, that shit is systemic

Sure, but Ireland has a bit of a leadership role in state collusion with the pedo priests.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Alright alright take it to GA or PA or whatever

Fair enough, apologies

 

[Bristol-Cruiser]

Seems. to me that boat renaming can occur for either push reasons - the current name is not acceptable, or pull reasons - there is a name you really, really want on your new pride and joy. When we bought our Bristol it was named "Double Ditto", whatever that means/meant. Obviously the previous owner had some connection to it. Clearly a push situation.

Next came the question of choosing a new name. The boat was to be registered in Canada federally. Each vessel in the registry must have a unique name so you can use something like 'Wave Chaser VII' if you must but I did not want a 'numbered' name so it was difficult. Legally names can only be in English or French so another complication. Also, wanted something short for spelling on the radio.Being a romantic, and my wife being Chinese we started with 'Ai Ni' which means loves you, but technically this would have been illegal, so we added an 'a' at the end - 'Ainia' which is also cool since it is a palindrome. The first couple of years we lived onboard in YC, we would tell Americans that the name meant, 'love you, eh' since many USAnians were certain Canadians talk like that. The renaming 'ceremony' involved some doggerel I found on the interwebs and a few bottles of decent bubbly, some for the boat's bow and most for dock friends.

Let's hear other push and pull name change stories.

 

[Ajax]

My boat had a great name...for the PO.

The boat was painted green and named "Bright Leaf." My wife informed me that in Maryland's history as a tobacco producer that "bright leaf" was a breed of tobacco plant. The PO and his family have a very long history in Maryland and were tobacco farmers way back, so the name had deep historical ties for him.

For me, it meant nothing more than green paint so it just had little meaning for me.

 

[TwoLegged]

I bought a wee sailing dinghy in England, via Ebay. Cheap cheap: it cost less than two tanks of petrol for my mid-sized hatchback car.

When I collected it, I saw that it was named in big letters "cream pasteurised". I decided that the pun was so bad that removing it would probably enrage whatever despotic demon possessed the soul of whoever applied the letters.

So it's still there. And although the name is fading, I still assume that if the pun police ever catch me, I will be toast.

 

[bgytr]

Renaming is what the new owner feels happy with.
My "ceremony" is the effort I put into my boat. When I put on the new name, I was at the stern with the heat gun removing the old letters. Buffing the transom to remove the shadow of the old letters, getting the shine up, designing my own logo and getting the decal made, putting it on, and having a moment of silent reverence by myself was my ceremony.
Then reinforcing with all the sweat and money of fixes and upgrades to resurrect a 1977 boat that may otherwise have been broken and scrapped, the spirit of my boat pays me back with good cruises and a handful of races in the cruiser fleet per year.

 

[Kris Cringle]

Our yawl was named GANDER TOO.

The name meant a lot to the PO'ers having owned the boat for 35 years.

I'm no fan of play -on- word, pun, or tongue-in-cheek boat names (I might have stuck with GANDER II).

I like true boat names; simple and clear. That makes it easy, there are a zillion of them (they will never make Boats US's top 10 boat names of the year).

I picked a few names I'd seen on old boats and tried them out on my family.

Then I remembered one I liked on an old Starling Burgess sloop. CHRISTMAS.

My family loved it. It's a secular word to us describing a wonderful time of the year, a season, snow and pines, precious family time, and so on.

Hmmm, even for a non-believer, this felt like fate. Done.

The ceremony consisted of an Easy Off Oven cleaner annointment followed by a CAD session to design size, font, and curvature for the laser cut vinyl (another peeve, un-designed graphics).

CHRISTMAS has been a good fit. We get occasional odd questions, "Was it a gift?" But mostly, the name feels right to us.

Since we named our CHRISTMAS, a new owner of ARAWAK, changed that old boat's name back to CHRISTMAS.

'Losers weepers',...