The true boat renaming ritual

[chester]

The name on our boat is This Side Up III. The PO thought this was so clever he used it 3 times. Some dock walkers also think it's clever. I believe the boats name is, wait for it, Chester; coincintally this is the third boat I have had and named Chester. I could peel This Side Up and stick Chester on for Chester III and bob's yer uncle! However, I am both lazy and cheap, so much so that none of my earlier boats ever had Chester applied to their hulls and this boat remains publicly This Side Up. III. As a matter of fact we never refer to it by any name other than "the boat". "where are you"? "on the boat". Where are you going"? "To the boat". I love the boat but I never refer to it by either it's public or it's private name.

P.S.

I should have noted that there is an arrow...pointing up...after the up

 

[accnick]

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',...

View attachment 557811

You could not have picked a better boat for a reference than the Burgess sloop Chirstmas, a long-time favorite of mine. That particular Christmas may be just about the prettiest double-ender ever designed.

Was the Arawak you mentioned the Concordia yawl?

 

[Kris Cringle]

You could not have picked a better boat for a reference than the Burgess sloop Chirstmas, a long-time favorite of mine. That particular Christmas may be just about the prettiest double-ender ever designed.

Was the Arawak you mentioned the Concordia yawl?

No. Donald Tofias (W-boat fame, now owns S&S), bought the Burgess sloop in the mid-late 90's and changed the name of CHRISTMAS, to ARAWAK.

During the late 90's he had the boat restored at Rockport Marine. He may have raced it for a few years as ARAWAK but quickly moved on in boats.

The next owner changed the name of ARAWAK back to CHRISTMAS. Alas they are merely the famous Xmas, we are the infamous CHRISTMAS.

 

[accnick]

No. Donald Tofias (W-boat fame, now owns S&S), bought the Burgess sloop in the mid-late 90's and changed the name of CHRISTMAS, to ARAWAK.

During the late 90's he had the boat restored at Rockport Marine. He may have raced it for a few years as ARAWAK but quickly moved on in boats.

The next owner changed the name of ARAWAK back to CHRISTMAS. Alas they are merely the famous Xmas, we are the infamous CHRISTMAS.

Is it better to be infamous, or unknown? Either way, your Christmas is the famous one in Maine now, as far as I'm concerned.

The restoration work done on the other Christmas is stunning, even if the interior is probably quite a departure from the original design. That looks like an open-checkbook restoration, and an extraordinarily high maintenance boat. Open checkbook then, open checkbook now.

 

[Autonomous]

Imma change the name on a boat I bought new this year.
Folks ask about the current name, Alerik, and the story just doesn't flow. A name needs either a good story or to be self evident.
Gonna rename her Opium, self explanatory.
Dunno about a ceremony for this odd case.

 

[TwoLegged]

Gonna rename her Opium, self explanatory.
Dunno about a ceremony for this odd case.

It's not hard to imagine a ceremony involving opium.

But law enforcement agencies may not be wholly supportive

 

[Autonomous]

It's not hard to imagine a ceremony involving opium.

But law enforcement agencies may not be wholly supportive

Lemme axe you a question.
How weird would it be to let the boat have two names?

Would it give said law enforcement agencies probable cause to detain me???
Would Neptune smite me down?
SA poke fun?

TLDR:
(Son of) Alerik is a Deep Purple masterpiece featuring Ritchie Blackmore, also one spelling of the Visigoth king that sacked Rome.
For whatever reason I put the name on both stern quarters. Gold vinyl lettering on the forest green sheer plank. The boat is styled like a late 19th century sail & oar vessel.

Sistership.

On the stern quarters.

The boat has an outboard rudder so the other personality ... er ... name will go on one side of the white wineglass transom.

On transom.

 

[TwoLegged]

Lemme axe you a question.
How weird would it be to let the boat have two names?

Would it give said law enforcement agencies probable cause to detain me???
Would Neptune smite me down?
SA poke fun?

I was going to reply that since I have no experience of boats with multiple personalities, I couldn't answer. Then I realised that I have had plenty of experience of boats with multiple personalities, just not with different names.

But still, I think than this case the answer should be simple. If you just share opium generously with any objectors, then Opium will be fine.

 

[Autonomous]

The new lettering and some plastic razors to remove the old lettering are in route.
In another life we used to get Thai stick that had been cured in opium smoke. Dreamy. Maybe I should check Amazon...

FWIW I really like the BoatU.S. lettering tool. You can see how the name actually looks with all the fonts, colors, backgrounds, slants, arcs, borders, gradients and shadows. No guessing.

 

[Alaris]

Agreed about the Boat US system. My order went in Sunday.

 

[Autonomous]

Cool. Show us your lettering if you don't mind.

 

[Alaris]

Cool. Show us your lettering if you don't mind.

I will, but once it’s on the boat and the ceremony is complete. I’m a little superstitious.

 

[Autonomous]

Understood.

 

[Cruisin Loser]

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.

That would be a lot of fun. I've really enjoyed our visits, and find you a great conversationaist. My daughter lives in Leander now, so let's make a date in the spring. I'll buy.

 

[Gouvernail]

That would be a lot of fun. I've really enjoyed our visits, and find you a great conversationaist. My daughter lives in Leander now, so let's make a date in the spring. I'll buy.

We have a retired Apple guy who likes to fiddle around at the shop. He does stuff like visit congressmen when passing through Washington on his way back from visiting Africa. I think the banter between you guys wouid be very interesting

 

[2airishuman]

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.

I'm confused. Are we still talking about boats?

 

[2airishuman]

The ceremonies proposed here need less wasted booze and more airily attired, pulchritudinous young people dancing on the foredeck.

 

[Alaris]

After reading all these replies and doing some research, I’ve landed on this ritual: https://www.sailnow.com/sail/denaming1a.html

To be executed tomorrow.

 

[Jim in Halifax]

After reading all these replies and doing some research, I’ve landed on this ritual: https://www.sailnow.com/sail/denaming1a.html

To be executed tomorrow.

Yeah, that's short and to the point. Doesn't waste a lot of rum. But I'm not sure how you will deal with getting the queen to do the christening... don't substitute Charles and his family for the late Liz - they'll drink all your rum. Maybe just your wife/girlfriend/sister?

 

[Alaris]

Yeah, that's short and to the point. Doesn't waste a lot of rum. But I'm not sure how you will deal with getting the queen to do the christening... don't substitute Charles and his family for the late Liz - they'll drink all your rum. Maybe just your wife/girlfriend/sister?

None of the above. I was thinking of having my 74-year-old mother do it.