Anyone not rename their boat?

[Inbreaker]

I grew up commercial fishing and never renamed any boats until about 10 years ago. (I had some boats, but they came without a name, or we redid them and simply removed the physical name, but never gave the boat a name.) The boats name referred to drinking that may have been cool in 1980. Since only 250 of the boats were made, and they are sorta difficult to come by, I bought it and removed the name. (If there were more available, I would have even passed on that one)

That being said, I am a bit superstitious (anyone that has been out in a boat in horrible conditions, unsure if they were going to see land again, becomes a bit superstitious, lol)

I did the name removal ceremony before i was taking my boat on a 20 hour shakedown cruise to Nantucket and figured we could have fun renaming her while away for a few weeks.

I sorta did it on the sly, with no one around (thought I would be laughed out of the harbor). It in involved removal of all old names from the boat, saying some stuff, and then dropping a piece of bronze in the water with the boats old name on it so Poseidon would know to remove it from his manifest….yada yada…..

You can google it, but I was given the instruction from an old harbor master that has since passed.

If your going to own a boat, then “own” it by making it yours with a name (IMHO)

Good luck in any case.

That is ridiculous, and quite irrational. Everyone knows that you restep the mast with a new silver coin. Which I was a party to more than once, working in the rigging gang of a shipyard on the Fraser river.

 

[Peter B]

We bought a cheap steel Hartley 32 yacht in Wellington, NZ. It was called " Fenrir " after Fenrir Greyback the Werewolf in Harry Potter. The guy we bought it from had allowed his daughter to paint a 5 foot by 4 foot Wolf's head on the Port side of the bow.

We painted out the wolf's head and name very soon after purchasing her.
She is now called "Ella " for our first Grandaughter.

In the mid 1970's we bought a 40 foot canal narrowboat called " Nautilus ".

As Jules Verne's Nautilus was a submarine, we changed that too!

As with the above story from Jarrow Lily, boat names are often quite interesting in their history - and reason for changing - or keeping.

Our first boat was a trailer yacht, bought in Taupo, NZ, and it had a newly painted red hull, and no-one remembered what she had been called. So, our boys being of 'that' age, and 'Star Wars' fanatics, she became Princess Leia - of course....

We later came upon someone who knew her before the hull paint job, and she was Brillig. I would have kept that if I'd known. Love Lewis Carol's work.
https://www.yourdictionary.com/brillig

Our next boat was also a yacht, (sail boat for US types), a maxi-trailer yacht, called Black Widow. Bought in Wellington also, like the above's first boat. My wife didn't like it much, but it was the manufacturer's own demo boat, so beautifully kitted out. He was a bit of a whiz at yacht racing, so she had a whole column of winning plaques glued to the for'd bulk-head. So, that name stayed. You don't mess with success..!

Our last boat, a CHB (Clipper) 34 was called Lotus. How could anyone not like that name, so it stayed. She has been that all her life - still has that name I believe, and she is 45 years old. 'nuff said..?

 

[KFitz]

We’ve never changed a boat name because they all seemed to fit the vessel and we could never think of better names.

 

[mvweebles]

.....
Our next boat was also a yacht, (sail boat for US types), a maxi-trailer yacht, called Black Widow. Bought in Wellington also, like the above's first boat. My wife didn't like it much, but it was the manufacturer's own demo boat, so beautifully kitted out. He was a bit of a whiz at yacht racing, so she had a whole column of winning plaques glued to the for'd bulk-head. So, that name stayed. You don't mess with success..!

Club-racing sailboats have some of the best names. I remember the days of J24 one design racing. None of the names come to mind, but many were really clever - and garishly painted. I can't imagine buying one and keeping the name or paint job.

In horse racing, I believe there is a 10 year life cycle before a name can be reused, thus some really cleaver names. "Hoof Hearted" (say it aloud a time or two) managed to squeak past the censors and made a very colorful call by track announcers.

 

[Captankirk]

We are the second owners of our boat. My wife is the superstitious type, had read it's bad luck to change a boat's name so we kept the original name. No sense in fighting mother nature, or the wife. You know the saying: "Happy wife, happy life". I'll run with that any day.

 

[mbdana]

Boat Name Change.

We chose to keep our boats name, as have all subsequent owners of our boat since original.
We kept the name for two reasons. The first was that the name "Third Reef" was unique, had a relevant back story and was the only documented boat with this name.
Secondly, the previous owner said to us when we bought her " you can do what you want, but you know, to change the gold leave name on three teak name boards is going to cost you a lot of money...I would keep the name". So we did and happy we did. And Poseidon has left us alone!

Happy cruising out there.

Mike Dana
Third Reef
36' Grand Banks Classic
Potts Harbor Maine
207-833-5080

 

[tiltrider1]

If you bought a boat and it was named “Aliens Eat my Buick”. Would you change the name.

 

[OldDan1943]

If you bought a boat and it was named “Aliens Eat my Buick”. Would you change the name.

I dont own a Buick.

 

[mike r smith]

Renaming vessel

I have never renamed any of the boats that I have previously owned. My current boat was Lloyds registered "Sharne Lisa" in 1981, and the two previous owners kept the original name; as I am.

 

[Wayfarer]

I dont own a Buick.

Aliens get it, did they? Condolences. Chin up, plenty of Buicks in the sea, an' all that.

 

[OldDan1943]

I have never renamed any of the boats that I have previously owned. My current boat was Lloyds registered "Sharne Lisa" in 1981, and the two previous owners kept the original name; as I am.

Your Fairways trawler 38 is a rugged looking boat. Beautiful.

 

[Donna]

I don’t really like the name of a boat I have under contract. But I’m going to keep it anyway.

I’ve owned 4 boats and the only one I had significant problems with was the first one that I renamed.

 

[Slowboattochina]

For many years we owned an old 13' Boston Whaler. I had a British flag painted on the side and in big letters said "Little Venice". I never knew why but I left it like that for the 10 years I used it as a dive boat. Many times I was asked why....I just shrugged. It was like that when I sold it.

 

[mike r smith]

My pal brought an old wreck in the early 70's, which he restored into running condition. He found "Jacksonville 1" carved on the bulkhead, so contacted the US harbour authorities. Turned out it was originally named "Poopooflee" in the 1930's. The authorities supplied him with the history, name of the owner and some original build drawings. Turned out in WW2, it was purchased by the British war commission renamed and registered as a British ship. Enquiries with the Britsish register found war history was classified. Anyway, he re named her Poopooflee and re registered her. He lived aboard for several years, and cruised to France, and up and down our east coast. Eventually sold at a hansom profit. Last we heard it was still afloat on the west coast.

 

[boomerang]

If you bought a boat and it was named “Aliens Eat my Buick”. Would you change the name.

Maybe if I was a big Debbie Harry fan I wouldn't. Otherwise, probably yes.

 

[JimC]

We kept the name LilyD as it seemed a proper sort of name for a boat like her, and it was pretty short and distinct on the VHF radio. When we dug back into her history, it turned out Lillian Delilah was the grandmother of the 2nd PO back who had done a lot of work to bring her back to good condition. Her name previous to that was the Flora W (which we probably wouldn't have kept) who was the grandmother of the the 3rd PO back. He was a chap named Dave Walton ( nickname Radar Dave) who used her as a radar and electronics repair boat out of Elfin Cove and Juneau. It turns out that Radar Dave was also one of the first net controllers for the Great Northern Boaters Net, I was active on the net for several years before we made that connection.