Renaming Boats, superstitions

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Wolter

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My family has recently bought a used boat and are talking about giving it a new name. It’s a bit of paint on the side of the boat, and some paperwork. Should be simple, right? But everyone that I talk to tells me that I need to use an unnaming ceremony and then a “christening” ceremony in order to avoid bad luck. These are drawn out affairs that invoke the names of pagan gods and involve making sacrifices to the ocean. Frankly it all seems a bit blasphemous to me. Is there a way to do this thing without worshiping idols or should I just give it all up as a bad job? Is there a patron saint of sailors or something, maybe?
 
You might want to try the prayer below;
St. Christopher is the patron saint of all migrants & travellers:

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

GOD bless & peace! 😇😇😇
 
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Wolter said:
Is there a patron saint of sailors or something, maybe?
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John Hennig, M.A. " Blessings for the Sailors" (Library : Blessings for the Sailors | Catholic Culture) might be relevant. It talks about possible blessings (saying that there is a difference between a blessing for a boat and a blessing for a fishing boat) and mentions that St. Peter is the patron saint of sailors.

Perhaps you should simply ask the priest about all that. There is already a reason (he would be giving the blessing) and you can ask him for advise as well.
 
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First off, welcome to the forums.

Second off, It sounds like you can simply ask your priest to bless it and all will be well.

Thirdly, Saint Adjutor is who you are thinking of. He is the patron of swimmers and boaters. He is famous for calming a whirlpool by throwing holy water into it, which saved the fishing boat he was on when he became a hermit after the First Crusade.
 
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To avoid bad luck, do not name it Titanic,

or Minnow.

😁

Seriously, though, if you scuttle all that Pagan stuff and have a good Catholic blessing, that would witness the faith and set a good example for the superstitious people whom you encounter.
 
Why not simply ask a priest to bless the boat? Anything above and beyond that risks superstition. Appealing to or invoking Saints might be good - but can also be superstition.

As a practical matter, stay in a state of grace. Thus, it will not matter if the boat sinks, explodes or whatever.
 
Buy a boat, name it whatever you wish, then you can have it blessed if you wish.
 
Are these American customs?

I think the bottom line is this: if you don’t follow the customs, no matter how long you own the boat, whether it’s a week or for decades, whenever you have problems with it people will use it as a cautionary tale of what happens when you ignore the customs.

So I say, ignore the customs and just 😁 and bear it.
 
on_the_hill said:
Are these American customs?
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It seems to be a very popular custom here in America, even our Coast Guard does it, but it’s one of the ones we inherited from England. England, I think, got it from the Romans. It’s a very old superstition.
 
Hmmm. Sounds like why my mom didn’t want to live in anything but a new house or new apartment. Didn’t want to live with problem ‘spirits’. I simply have my home blessed by a holy priest 🙂
 
Casilda said:
Hmmm. Sounds like why my mom didn’t want to live in anything but a new house or new apartment. Didn’t want to live with problem ‘spirits’. I simply have my home blessed by a holy priest 🙂
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My mother-in-law was the same way. She didn’t want a house that anyone died in. Thus, they built a new house. And one of the workers had a fatal heart attack in it shortly before it was finished.
 
It looks nice! (I looked it up online). That is a huge engine for that size of vessel.

I’ve never heard of that superstition. I wouldn’t worry about it.

Some boat owners expect people to keep the same name if it is a classic, well known wooden boat celebrities and Presidents have been on. Otherwise I would rename it.
 
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