How to Rename Your Boat: And 19 Other Useful Ceremonies, Superstitions, Prayers, Rituals, and Curses

There's some new and fascinating material here from the extraordinary mind of that well-known author, sailor, and former newspaper columnist, John Vigor. One glance will convince you that this is not at all your usual boating book. It's quirky -- funny in some chapters, serious in some, and quite over the top in others. And yet, as experienced boaters will realize, it's really a book about safety at sea. This is the basic thread that runs all the way through it, supplemented with plentiful advice about how you can improve your odds of survival in various circumstances. Some of it may not be standard advice, of course. Vigor's famous "denaming" ceremony, for instance, doesn't look like boating safety advice at first glance. But it is. It protects you from bad luck at sea, and sailors the world over have recognized this. The ceremony is the most-requested article on several Internet Web sites and has been translated into several foreign languages.