As my esteemed "colleague" Mr. Stevens rightly pointed out, there were no rituals or superstitions about renaming boats on the narrow canals. Very few working narrowboats went through their entire working life with one name.
For that matter, from my research into my family's maritime past, there is ample evidence of commercial ship owners having no qualms about changing a ships' name either - for example, on one occasion, my father arrived in Glasgow aboard the 'Stentor' on the 13th Nov and left the next day aboard the 'Glenshiel'. However, it was the same ship! Overnight it had been transferred from one Alfred Holt & Co. subsidiary line to another and renamed. From conversations with Dad about my research it's pretty clear that he didn't even notice! (But then he was buried in the depths of the engine room) In fact, I'm not aware of any historical evidence of there being any widespread superstition about changing a boats name in this country. Big or small, commercial or pleasure, fresh or salt, names of boats throughout the ages have been changed at the whim of the owners (although what the crew thought about it might be another matter!) TTFN Bru
