Our new boat’s original name was Cecilie – she was named after the owners’ daughter. It’s a good name, but we hoped to find something a bit different and more meaningful to us.

The first step in the process of renaming a boat is to completely remove all traces of the boat’s original name, both inside and outside of the boat

Our criteria for a new name for the boat was pretty simple – the new name should

  • Mean something to us
  • Reflect our sailing experiences
  • Match what we think of the boat
  • Be easy to say and understand on the VHF when in non-English speaking areas
The second step is to write the boat’s old name on a metal ingot, then throw the ingot into the sea and ask Neptune to remove the name permanently from his records. During this step, we enjoyed a cup of coffee with Neptune, by pouring his over the bow and into the sea

We chose Oso, which translates to “bear” in Spanish. It is meaningful to us and reflects our sailing experiences – one of the highlights of cruising in British Columbia, Canada, and in Alaska was the sheer number of bears that we saw roaming the beaches, turning over rocks while looking for shellfish. We even nearly collided with a brown bear while entering Lituya Bay in Alaska.

After the old name was purged from Neptune’s records, it was time to apply the new name
Mike’s checking to see if the name and hailing port are centered and straight across the transom before it is permanently attached

The new name also matches what we think of the boat. Even after some time aboard, the new boat still feel ginormous to us, and it’s powerful enough that we have to be quite careful with the sailing loads. So it feels like a giant bear, in a good way.

Next is the renaming ceremony – first asking Neptune to record and bless the new name and vessel and offering him a sacrifice (Norwegian beer in our case), then appeasing the four wind gods and offering them a libation
Following the renaming ceremony Oso’s name is revealed on the transom

For the final criteria, we were pretty sure that a name with only two syllables and two distinct letters would be pretty foolproof to pronounce. So we’ve been surprised to hear people pronounce it “Ozoe”, or “Osso”. So the jury’s still out on our judgment about easy for other people to pronounce, but at least it’s easy for us!

Thanks to Neptune and the wind gods and here’s to Oso and many fun adventures!