On 25, Mar 2007, at 10:09, Mike Stevens wrote: >> This may seem a little superstitious but I was always of the >> understanding that to re-name a boat was considered bad luck? >> >> I was talking to a colleague t'other day and they said that there was >> an old ritual that involved burning a paper boat as part of a renaming >> ceremony to appease the "God of boat renaming badluckness".Apparently >> the ceremony was used by canal folk many decades ago if a commercial >> boat was renamed, i.e. if it changed owners and they needed to make >> the alteration for business reasons. >> >> Is this correct or just another waterborne myth? > > I suspect the latter. Canal boats in the working years were regularly > re-named when they changed owners.
I seem to remember a story that if a boat was to be renamed it was "best done" when out of the water, for superstitious reasons. Cross fingers that's the way to do it. Beeky
