I mean, it’s such a pity. There’s
this gorgeous boat just waiting to be looked after and coddled by someone wise
and sensitive like you, and the previous owner named it Phluphphy or Bumphluphph. Or possibly Swashbuckle;
Trashcan; Scutt le Butt; Hasta la Pasta; Tuppence Ha’penny
(dinghy : Penny Farthing); Malgré
Tout; or Beauzeaux.
Enough said. You don’t have to
convince us that a name change is in order. But you’re scared, right? You’ve
heard that it’s unlucky to change a boat’s name. Well, not so. Not if you take
precautions.
One of the most popular articles
I ever wrote was Vigor’s
Interdenominational Denaming Ceremony. It described the steps I took when I
wanted to rename a 31-foot sloop I intended to sail from the Indian Ocean to
the United States with my wife and 17-year-old son.
The guts of it was a formal
little denaming ceremony, a request to the ancient gods of the wind and the sea
to erase the boat’s name from their records, and to accord her the same
protection she had enjoyed from them before, when she was re-baptized under a
new name.
It worked for me, and I’ve had no
complaints from the hundreds of people who have used it since.
You will find a free printable
copy of the ceremony and full instructions if you click on the “Denaming
Ceremony” tab in the list on the right. Alternatively, you can buy the book, How to Rename Your Boat, which has a
whole lot of other interesting stuff in it, or you can do an Internet search
using the words “denaming ceremony,” which, I should warn you, might bring up
some inferior rival ceremonies. And finally, you can get a nice free version by
going to and looking in the article archives.
Today’s Thought
Who
hath not
own’d, with
rapture-smitten frame,
The power of grace, the magic of a name ?— Thomas Campbell, The Pleasures of Hope.
Tailpiece
“Did you get those camouflage trousers you wanted?”“Nah, I couldn't find any.”
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday
for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
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