Logistics of "Christening"

[guidothesquid]

As boat newbies, I'd hate to upset Poseidon, Sedna, or Neptune with an immediate gaffe, so I'm curious as to how to properly conduct the naming ceremony. We are scheduled to take delivery of our boat, get our orientation, and head down to the Locks and the Fisherman's Terminal cruise all within a 25 hour period of time. So, when does one christen the boat? Is it before you take it out the first time that's not training? What have the rest of you done?

Or am I just an old fool for the whole naming ceremony / christening / don't-piss-off-the-gods -thing?

Guido

 

[Gin]

Guido, thanks for asking. We have the same questions. Looking forward to the sage advice of fellow Tugnuts.

By the way, we were at the factory on Monday. Part of our boat was in the same working area where TugBug was located. What a beauty! And the graphics were great. We liked TugBug so well we included it in all the pics we took and sent it off to a few friends to admire. Congrats on a fine lookin' R-21! (we love the Hunter Green and chose it as well).

Gini & Colleen

 

[baz]

Paul:

I must admit we did little for Christening our R-25 when placing it into the water for the first time. I was so taken up with steering the boat and docking it while Andrew watch me with an Eagle eye. He was very proud and admired me for simply leaping into the helmsman's seat and taking control in all my excitement of having the boat to myself for the first time.

I can/will place a bottle of Champagne in my boat for our trip to Fisherman's Terminal and we can do some sort of Christening at Fisherman's if that works for you. Don't misunderstand this to mean I'll break the bottle on your boat's bow. With 31 odd boats there we could all crowd around TugBug and raise a glass or two,.... but we must face away from the Terminal Office when we do this. 😉

You might want to see what others also post as suggestions for you...

 

[Olytuggers]

We had a lot of fun christening our boat. We waited about a month after getting it so that all of our family could be there. We found some great words for toasting on the Internet that we used, and the whole day was a celebration. You can find some of what we did in our boat blog at www.bioaquatics.com/hokukai. You will find some of the "ceremony" if you click on Introduction and scroll down to the naming and family gathering, and more if you click on Boat Days and find the July 2011 entry for the family celebration. Delaying for a month has not brought us bad luck, at least not so far! You are going to have so much fun with your boat. Looking forward to seeing you in Seattle. If you send me your email address, I can send you the wonderful toasting words we found.

Lois and Dan Cheney
Hoku Kai 2012 R25SC

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

We christened our Kismet about three weeks after we took delivery, I don't know if this is protocol or not but we had fun. I've attached a link to our blog that has both the text of a boat christening and a video of our actual christening, which was performed on the Willamette River in Downtown Portland Oregon with our son Ross and friends of our family.

http://trailertrawlerlife.com/cruising/ ... YzZRKXrbzI

Jim

 

[Crewdog]

We made a semi-formal christening dockside in Panama City, FL at our first overnight cruise the day after finishing delivery orientation in Apalachicola.

There was some words read about appeasing Neptune and Poseidon, and instead of breaking a bottle of champagne, I had read it was ok to just sprinkle a few drops of rum on the bow.

I did some googling and found a list of old sea shanties at http://www.jsward.com/shanty/index.shtml
and I chose "The Last Shanty" to read the lyrics (didn't want to offend Neptune with MY singing....)

What mattered was having new friends alongside to share the moment with.

 

[Hydraulicjump]

Here is our christening query to the Tugnuts crowd and the poem my sister read while pouring wine around the boat. The whole breaking of champagne bottles is a modern invention. The Greeks and the Romans, while appealing to Poseidon and Neptune, would not have approved (obviously they didn't have champaign anyways). Use wine, pour it from port to starboard, drink and share the leftovers.

My sister even wrote a funny song titled "Tugnacious" and posted it to YouTube.

Here's the thread.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3160

Jeff

 

[Gin]

You are all just full of creative and inspiring suggestions! This will be so much fun 😀

Gini & Colleen

 

[aussie]

I agree with you Gini and colleen we are getting things sorted to have a very enjoyable christening when we get Blu Tug sorted 😀 .
She arrives here ( Fremantle ) Western Australia approx. 3am tomorrow morning 🙂 Then sits on the wharf until Monday morning then trucked to a local sailing club to get antifouling, electronics, fitted. Training sessions, sea trails, then we are off on our first voyage to Mandurah ( south of Perth) to her home berth pen 27 Bouvard Marina 😀 😀 .

Cheers
Peter and Ronie B

 

[Gin]

Peter and Ronnie,

We are excited that your boat is almost there and you are so close to getting to enjoy her! Seems like it was just yesterday that Bruce (or I think it was Bruce) was trying to watch the freighter she was on as it left the Puget Sound. Looking forward to posts of your first adventures!

Gini & Colleen

 

[Spinner]

When Spinner was delivered in May, I passed the champagne around and then poured the last of the bottle over the bow, while announcing the name. Short and sweet (followed by a rinse-down to elimate sticky residue...)

Sue
Spinner

 

[guidothesquid]

I'm now realizing that we haven't officially Christened TugBug. Uh oh.

 

[baz]

Paul: From reading through this thread it seems to me that 'anything goes' for a Christening activity. Suggest you kneel down with your two huge dogs and say a few private words... do this before too much water passes underneath you. It might also solve your bilge pump issue. 😉

 

[Levitation]

I prefer the traditional way before christian nonsense ruined it with being all proper and modest, and all that stuff..
In short, the ceremony (including hoisting the goat to the mast head) culminated with a good, old fashioned orgy.
(well, the guys were gonna jump on board next morning and be gone for six months) :mrgreen:

Buuuut, the proper types at the marina's today would likely raise a fuss, so a splash of fire water on the bow, declare the sun under the yardarm and pour a libation all around, should suffice.