How to Rename Your Boat

Download the ceremony PDF

Why sailors do this

Old salt lore says the sea keeps a ledger of every named vessel. Change the letters on the transom without taking the old name off those books, and luck turns. The custom is: strip the old name completely, speak a short denaming at the bow, then christen the new name before the new letters go on.

The words below are original wording for Name Your Boat. They follow the usual dockside parts (an opening, thanks, striking the old name, a rededication, and a drink poured for the sea), then a simple christening.

Before you say a word

Take every trace of the old name off the boat: transom, hull, dinghy, life rings, logbooks, charts. Sand or scrape painted names. Peel vinyl clean. Do not put the new name on until the denaming is done. Have two bottles of champagne. One is poured entirely over the bow. The other is for the dock. Write the old name and the new name on a card.

The denaming (at the bow)

Opening: In the name of everyone who has sailed on this boat, and everyone who will, we ask the wind and the sea to hear us today.

Thanks: Neptune, keeper of the waves, and Aeolus, keeper of the winds: thank you for the safe passages this boat has already made, and for every harbor that took her in.

Strike the old name: We ask that the name she has carried until now, [old name], be taken off your books and forgotten.

Rededication: When we bring her back to you under a new name, know her as the same boat, and grant her the same care. We give her back to the sea.

The drink: We seal this with a drink poured for the sea, as sailors have always done.

Pour the first bottle entirely over the bow. Some wait overnight before christening. Others rename the same afternoon.

The christening

I name this boat [new name]. May she find fair winds, and bring everyone aboard home safe.

Break or pour from the second bottle, then share the rest. Now the new letters can go on.

The legal side

The ceremony does not replace paperwork.

Coast Guard documented vessels: file an Exchange of Certificate of Documentation (form CG-1258) with the National Vessel Documentation Center. Put the new name, then the old name in parentheses. If there is a preferred mortgage, you need the lender’s written consent. NVDC: 1-800-799-8362.

State-registered boats, including California CF numbers: the painted name is not the registration ID. In California the CF number stays with the boat; you do not file a separate rename form with DMV just to change the lettering. Tell your insurer. Other states: ask that state’s vessel office whether the name is on the record.