Hello, Was wondering what you all think about the rituals involved in the changing of the name of yacht just purchased? Thanks, Jim
If you believe in Friday the 13th, walking unde r a ladder and all that crap, go ahead and waste a bottle of champagne
If the boat has a good name now and you change it to something lame the gods will frown upon you. If the current name is lame and you change it to something good you will have calm seas and fair winds.
We would throw these ceremonies for our customers. Dressed up as pirates, made the past and new name tags. Had the new ships name covered until the rite time. Read off the Appeasements and prayers including spilling of champagne towards the deities. Of course, this starts just off the dock, come back to the dock quickly and the rest of the marina, friends and invited would welcome the boat back, with new name showing, to help further celebrate and exchange gifts (boat warming). We usually did a case (or more) to start off the party. There was no waste of a bottle..
What ever you choose make sure to say it three times and see how it will feel/sound when you transmit it on the VHF.
And consider alternative meanings to a word. Yesterday I saw a BIG sailing cat called Che on AIS here in the exumas… apparently it has different meanings like “Hey”… problem in this case is that for anyone with any knowledge of history, the word is permanently tainted by the 1960s mass murderer psychopath directly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Cuba and other places
