Naming Your Boat: The Complete Guide from Getting Ideas to Making it Official

Naming your vessel is a very important part of boat ownership! To help make it easier, we’ll cover the do’s and don’ts for coming up with boat name ideas, details on christening your craft, and what to do if a name change is unavoidable.

Do’s and Don’ts for Naming Your Boat

1. Keep it Short 

From an aesthetic standpoint, you want your boat’s name to easily fit on the transom, so one to two words are best. Beyond the ornamental consideration, a short and understandable name is also a necessity when making an emergency call on your onboard VHS radio. By keeping it short, you’ll make it easy for a responder to catch the name.

2. Follow the Rules 

The United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom don’t have any rules or regulations on the naming of recreational boats. However, registration requirements vary by country, so check with your regulatory agency to be sure you are in compliance.

3. Make a Tribute

Is there someone you want to honor with the name of your boat? It could be a real person, a character, or mythical being. A few common tributes include:

• A sweetheart (just like a tattoo, be careful and certain when you go this route!)
• A sea creature, mythical or real: Little Mermaid, Calypso, Sea Urchin
• A special family member 
• A hero or mentor 

4. Give It a Motto, Personality, or Feeling 

What words do you live by? Is there a certain trait or feeling you want your boat or travels to exude? These are great ways to come up with a name. Here are a couple of examples:

• Life Motto: Persist, Carpe diem, Silver Lining, Smooth Sailing
• Personality or Feeling: Discovery, Epic, Serenity, Peace, Perseverance

5. Have Some Fun with It 

A boat name doesn’t have to be serious. Many people like to have a little fun with it. Here are a few ideas for directions to go when brainstorming:

• Reference your Career or Hobby: Banker’s Hours, Exhibit A, Time Out, Winning Ticket
• Make a Pun: Seas the Day, Pier Pressure, Aboat Time, Pug Boat
• Reference Popular Culture: Ariel, Love Boat, Margaritaville, 3-Hour Tour

6. Don’t Challenge the Sea Gods

DO NOT have the audacity to name your boat after the forces of the sea, as in Tempest, Typhoon, or Hurricane.  To do so would be issuing a challenge to nature, likely a no-win situation.

7. Don’t Memorialize a Fallen Vessel 

It’s considered tempting fate to name a boat after a vessel lost to the sea. So, again, don’t challenge the sea gods!

How to Christen Your Boat 

Once you have the perfect name, it is time for pomp and circumstance. The christening ceremony is an important tradition.

Here’s a quick rundown of the events of a christening:

1. With your boat in the water, gather family and friends aboard.
2. You will need two or more bottles of champagne or another celebratory beverage.  We suggest one made for christening boats (companies like Galleyware make bottles specifically designed to christen boats) and another for your guests to consume.
3. Be prepared with a speech. Say a few words to welcome your guests aboard. Share about your vessel, where it came from, the history if it’s an older boat, and where you hope to sail to. Then, end your speech by asking for safe passage.
4. Once you have completed your speech, pour half a bottle of champagne into the water. This is your offering for safe passage—enjoy the other half of this bottle with your guests after the christening ceremony.
5. Next you will offer your boat a gift of appreciation for carrying all who voyage with her to safe harbors. Pour or break the bottle across the boat’s bow or another metal fixture on the boat, taking care not to damage the paint.
6. Next place a green leafy branch in the boat to signify the safe return to land.
7. Pass the second bottle of celebratory beverage to all gathered and toast the boat by name.
8. End the celebration by taking your newly named vessel out on its maiden voyage.

Where will you go on your maiden voyage? OceanGrafix has a chart for every journey. Browse now.

When the Name is Not So Sweet: How to Change Your Boat’s Name

Whether a relationship attached to the boat’s name goes bad or the new-to-you boat had a previous owner who delighted in a not-so-family-friendly name (Ship Happens, Breakin’ Wind), sometimes you just have to change the name.

It isn’t a quick fix, but when it’s time for a change, all it will take is a little elbow grease and another ceremony, which must precede the christening.

First, you have to erase the old name from all memory. It will not be enough to paint over the old name, because paint can peel away, and reveal the former identity. It also will not be enough to remove the name from the boat. Remove all instances of the name from life rafts, jackets, and buoys. Scour furniture, equipment, tools, and mechanical parts. Destroy ID tags. White out the name on old ledgers and paperwork.

For the un-naming ceremony, you will need two or more bottles of champagne, a water-soluble marker, and an environmentally friendly tag. Write the old name of the boat in water-soluble ink on the tag.

With your boat in the water, gather family and friends aboard or do this alone—depending on how comfortable you are with performances. Whether you’re alone or surrounded by your favorite fellow boaters, start by offering the boat a gift of appreciation for all of the safe passages of the past, pouring half of the bottle across the boat’s bow. Pass the celebratory beverage to all gathered, and toast the boat by its old name.

Now, it’s time to give into that healthy dose of boater superstition and to appease the gods of the sea. To do this, you’ll want to recite ‘Vigor’s Denaming Ceremony’ or some variation of it. Offer the tags as proof of thankfulness and drop them into the water. To show gratitude, pour the other half of the champagne into the water.

Then, hold the christening ceremony directly after the un-naming ceremony.

Have fun with this, and may you have many happy voyages!

Where will you go on your maiden voyage? OceanGrafix has a chart for every journey. Browse now.

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NOAA Turns 50 in October: Here’s How It’s Celebrating

NOAA Celebrates 50 Years of Science, Service, and Stewardship

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is turning 50 on October 3, 2020, and has found a few memorable ways to celebrate the occasion.

First, there’s the Oral History 50th Anniversary Series, which contains interviews with key players in the early years of NOAA, such as diving pioneer Dick Rutkowski. You’ll also find a “salute to NOAA’s champions,” honoring the scientists, administrators, and senators who contributed to the agency in various ways.

As both the first physical science agency and the first conservation agency in the U.S., NOAA “was born out of an idea that the ocean and atmosphere are inextricably linked,” says Acting Administrator Dr. Neil Jacobs. Today, it’s involved in weather and climate research, fishery conservation, charting the ocean floor, and more.

We’ve recently highlighted the chart updates coming to Florida that will make boating in the region safer for commercial and recreational boaters for years to come.

You can check out the “Our Birthday Story” video on YouTube to learn more about the agency’s history and its origins in the Weather Warning Office of the 1800s. Or, view the NOAA at 50 story map—a collection of photos, videos, and other media that explores the science, history, and recent accomplishments of the agency.

Since it was founded on October 3, 1970, NOAA has “grown to become a world-class science agency with a reach that extends from the surface of the sun to the depths of the ocean floor.” We’re excited to see what it can do in the next 50 years!

 

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Where—and What—to Fish This Winter

You might think the only fishing you can do in the winter is on the ice but think again. Just like the birds, you could head south somewhere like the Gulf of Mexico, which is also known as “the Mediterranean of the Americas.” Below are some of the best spots to drop a line this winter.

Where: Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama

Sugar-white sand, mild temps, and Southern charm make the 32-mile stretch of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach a prime winter destination. You can fish on the seawall boardwalk for no charge or head over to the Gulf State Park Pier, which extends a quarter-mile into the Gulf, for a $9.00 day pass. Whether you’re looking for inshore, beachside, or offshore fishing, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach have it all.

Winter Catch: Black Drum, Sheepshead, Grouper

• Black drum:
  • Taste: similar to Red Snapper (mild, sweet flavor, large moist flakes)
  • Size: 20-25 pounds
  • Bait: quartered blue crabs, hermit crabs or bucktails
  • Best place and time to catch: running tides in late afternoon and evening
• Sheepshead:
  • Taste: sweet, shellfish flavor, firm, moist flesh
  • Size: 1-8 pounds (Sheepshead smaller than 12 inches are required to be released)
  • Bait: live shrimp, hermit, fiddler crabs
  • Best place and time to catch: Found where saltwater meets freshwater and in winter found near piers and jetties
• Grouper:
  • Taste: light, sweet and large, chunky, firm flakes similar to lobster or crab
  • Size: some varieties of grouper can grow up to seven-and-a-half feet long and weigh more than 440 pounds
  • Bait: squid, whole cigar minnows, live pinfish, white snapper, vermillion snapper (think big and bulky)
  • Best place to catch: deep water on natural rocks and live bottom reefs

Where: South Padre Island, Texas

Crystal-blue waters, white sand beaches, air and water temps in the 70s, and laid-back vibes give South Padre Island, Texas, it’s winter appeal. It’s also the longest barrier island in the world at 113 miles.

Winter Catch: Bull redfish, pompano, whiting/jacks

• Bull redfish:
  • Taste: mild, sweet flavor and moist white meat
  • Size: 20-40 inches
  • Bait: fresh bunker or blue crab
  • Best place to catch: Lower Laguna
• Pompano:
  • Taste: similar to mahi-mahi, mullet, and snapper (“fishy”)
  • Size: 2-5 pounds
  • Bait: Shrimp or small, live bait
  • Best place to catch: Surf and coastal bays on warmer days
• Whiting/jacks:
  • Taste: similar to cod, light, firm, lean, sweet
  • Size: 1-2 pounds
  • Bait: Live sand fleas or shrimp
  • Best place to catch: surf zone along the coast, just behind breaking waves

Where: Perdido Key, Florida

Spanish for “Lost Island,” Perdido Key sits near the border of Florida and Alabama on a narrow strip of land with the Emerald Coast to the south and lush wetlands and estuaries to the north. It’s a place fit for wildlife lovers and explorers. Possible sightings include loggerhead sea turtles, Perdido Key beach mouse, osprey, or blue heron.

Winter Catch: Speckled Sea Trout

• Taste: Similar to California White Bass, light, white flesh, flaky, moist
• Size: Around 10 pounds
• Bait: Live shrimp, croaker, and mullet
• Best place to catch: Perdido Bay and especially the heads of estuaries, rivers, and creeks

No matter where you boat or what you fish this winter, safely navigate the Gulf Coast with these NOAA charts.

 

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OceanGrafix Responds to Maritime Community Clamor, Offers Charts in a Traditional Format

Sometimes, a product is discontinued and no one breathes a word of remorse. But that was not the case when, earlier this year, the federal government stopped producing its lithographically printed paper charts; there remained in the boating community a subsection of navigators who had grown accustomed to the specific look and feel of the government’s nautical charts—and did not want to see them go away.

We were surprised that there were individuals in the maritime community who were so stirred by this change. We knew we had the capacity to produce charts with the traditional look and feel they wanted, so we did.

A More Classic Look
What separates our new “traditional” charts from the print-on-demand charts we’ve been printing for years? The paper and the colors.

Traditional charts feature warmer colors on cream-colored paper.

Printed on water-resistant paper using a warm, classic color palette, our traditional charts contain the same up-to-date, NOAA-approved content as any other OceanGrafix navigational chart, yet they appeal aesthetically to those mariners who prefer the look and feel of the lithographically printed charts that the federal government discontinued earlier this year.

For more information about buying or selling traditional charts from OceanGrafix, contact us.