Denaming and renaming
I have being reading with great interest the names of all the H23’s you have been publishing. Well now it is my turn.
Well, as you know my Holiday23 (Sail # 124) is called “About Time”. It’s a bit of a long story but I’ll keep it as short as possible. I’ve been sailing since the age of 12yrs from the early 70’s when later I met my school friend while sailing Dabchicks at VLC. At the time I told him that one day I will own my own yacht which will be more comfortable and dryer to sail than a Dabchick – I just got this strange and confused look, he knew nothing about sailing, still today. After buying my H23 five years ago, I was in a dilemma, I needed to change the name for various reasons (another story). I just could not come up with a suitable or apt name for her. I invited all my friends and family to come and see her. The first words that my old school friend uttered to me when he saw her was “It’s About Time !!!” you got a yacht. Well that was it, this was going to be her name. I must say, besides the obvious, it’s been quite an apt name, sailing is all about time, patience, peace & serenity and an accumulation of knowledge.
This brings me to my next point. In the past five years I have got to know many new keel boat owners in the North Vaal area of which most of them have changed the names of their yachts, of which the majority have changed their boat’s names without ceremony. This concerns me to the fact that it is becoming the norm and although I’m not superstitious, but I’m careful, and a bit of a traditionalist, certain things must be done when changing the name of the boat – nothing wrong with that.
Attached, are the Short and the Official versions of how things are done. It makes good reading and anybody who wants to change a name of a yacht/ boat, it is a MUST read. Bottom line, it’s all part of the fun we are doing. I have attached 3 photos of my ceremonial (short version) of my De-Naming & Re-Naming ceremony. Coenie, please make these documents & photos available for everyone to access on your website as a reference.
(click on these links below to open the document)
OFFICIAL DE NAMING AND RENAMING CEREMONY
SHORT VERSION DE NAMING & RE NAMING CEREMONY
Lastly, for those who do change their names of their yachts, take special note of page 13 of the “official” version of the “De-naming & Re-naming” document regarding sailing backwards. I had the misfortune of the bottle of champagne not breaking on the bow for the first time it struck the bow for the Re-naming (Christening) – “bad omen”. I did the sailing backwards thing (min. 1 boat-length) and went on to win the H23 class Round The Island Race in 2007 two weeks later.
By Marcel Prydekker
