Incurring Poseidon's wrath??

[RyanLuce]

Hi All,

My wife and I recently got a new (to us) boat and we're considering changing the name. I know the superstition around the idea and, while I am not superstitious, my wife is very much so. The little agreement we've reached is to change the name to a literal Spanish translation of the English name. Are we tempting Poseidon's trident?

Ryan

 

[TFrere]

My wife and I renamed our boat after we purchased it. Here is how we did it:

After a boat is de named, you simply need to rename it using the traditional christening ceremony, preferably with Queen Elizabeth breaking a bottle of champagne on the bow, and saying the words:

"I name this ship ___________, and may she bring fair winds and good fortune to all who sail on her."
This article was taken from Good Old Boat Magazine, Volume 2, Number 4, July/August 1999

Unfortunately Queen Elizabeth was unavailable for the ceremony.

 

[Winkfish]

Drink some rum, dress in a pirate outfit, drink some more rum, say some kind of maritime-sounding poem or song, drink some more rum, do some kind of pirate thing with your wife, drink more rum, and you should be o.k. (superstition-wise, that is.)

 

[justsomeguy]

I'd just change it. You could throw in a little mumbo-jumbo at the end to appease your wife.
Have HER drink the rum! The more they drink, the better we look!

 

[Merlin Clark]

So, you're bypassing a chance to get together with some friends for drinks? You sure you bought a sailboat?

 

[kenn]

Do it right. Or, re-read the thread on lightning protection. Just sayin'...

 

[onecoolair]

Do all of the above!!!.......But never ever name your boat after a wife or girl friend, well maybe a mistress is okay....

 

[finding41]

Wow that link kenn gave is from boatsafe.com. Better safe than sorry.
What do you do if your boat doesn't and didn't have a name. I have a new one ready to go.

 

[jibes138]

Don't listen to any of the previous posts. You will have a disaster. It is easy to change the name of your boat. All you have to do is to sail backwards across the equator while offering up a sacrifice to Poseiden and you should be in good shape. Also your boat name must be an odd number of letters and the more "A's" in the name the better. So a nice name like AAAARGH for instance or ALALALA. A name with 7 letters is the best but 11 or 5 will be acceptable with a somewhat heightened risk level. Boats should always have feminine names so don't be calling it with some masculine name.
I was not willing to take the risk of renaming my boat. It was named for the previous owners, Ward and Jan Olsen, thus the name WindWard Jan. I wake up often at night in a cold sweat with the masculine portion of the name and the few A's but the risk of changing it is greater than the other risks. At least it has 11 letters.