Why Nine of Cups?

Choosing a name for our new sailboat was a challenge. We wanted a name that was unique as well as a name that held significance for us. We spent a year looking for a boat and just as long deciding upon a name that might be appropriate when we found her.

On Marcie's 50th birthday, her sister, Lin, gave her a deck of tarot cards accompanied by a Reading Tarot Cards for Dummies book. Marcie was fascinated by the cards and practiced doing "tarot spreads" and readings on David (who else?). Of the 78 cards in a tarot deck, 10 are chosen at random for a Celtic spread. Nearly every time David chose his ten cards, the Nine of Cups appeared, signifying among other things "a dream realized". We realized that this was the chosen name and found her shortly thereafter waiting for us in Kemah, Texas.

What's in a name?
"Nine of Cups" is a tarot card. Tarot cards have a history reaching back to the ancient Egyptians and are used to tell fortunes. The Nine of Cups card is especially good and predicts your dreams will be realized. Pretty appropriate for us. Depending on the tarot deck, there are all sorts of designs. We learned to say “Nine of Cups” in several different languages! In Spanish-speaking countries, Nine of Cups was pronounced "Nee-nay oov coops" so we quickly learned "Nueve de Copas" which was easier for everyone. In French Polynesia, people were much more familiar with tarot and "Neuf de Coupes" was readily understood.

Renaming and Denaming a Boat

Renaming a boat, we discovered, is not an easy proposition. There are a lot of superstitions associated with renaming and we didn't want to risk any bad luck so we thoroughly researched the processes and ceremonies associated with denaming and renaming boats. They ranged from the Norse belief that  burning  the boat to the waterline was the only way to prevent bad luck (not an option) to just sticking a new nameboard on the transom. After much thought, we combined what we thought was the best of all the ceremonies we fathomed out and came up with two of our own. First, a denaming ... followed by a renaming ceremony. This took place in Kemah, Texas on the dock and was attended by some local liveaboards lured by the promise of free champagne and David’s Mom - because she was David’s Mom.

The Denaming Ceremony
Remove every vestige of the old name from the boat...from the name on the transom to any paperwork with the name on it... every item... except one. That one item must be burned after invoking the blessings of Neptune and thanking him for keeping the boat with the old name safe. The ashes are thrown into the sea.

The Renaming Ceremony
There were lots of options here. We chose tying a lock of hair from a red-headed virgin (our friend Dave Tolan's 6-year old red-headed daughter, Katie, volunteered a lock and mailed it to us) around a rabbit's foot. While invoking the blessings of Neptune once again and asking that he accept the new name of the vessel and keep the ship and its crew safe in its future passage, the rabbit's foot is thrown over the left shoulder and into the sea. We ended the ceremony by proclaiming in the name of Neptune "We hereby christen this ship Nine of Cups!" We popped the champagne with the first tot being offered to Neptune.

We were hoping to develop a unique logo for Nine of Cups and saw the bronze seahorses pictured above on a beautiful gate in Halifax, Nova Scotia in the summer of 2001.  We took a digital picture which David massaged until we were satisfied with the logo. We’ve used it ever since.

David painstakingly carved two name boards for our bow from mahogany wood purchased in Canada. The project took several months and 18k gold leaf was used for the letters. Learn how to carve your own name boards. Read this article, A Touch of Nautical Elegance - Carved Name Boards, that David wrote for Boatworks.