Thursday 16 October 2008

a boat by any other name...

Peter is no more.

We have been thinking for a long while about a name change for the boat, as Peter never felt like it was ‘right’ for a boat belonging to us. For one thing my brother is called Peter, and there’s only room for one of him in the world, and I have always felt strange referring to the boat as a ‘she’ and then calling ‘her’ Peter. Like the moorings manager here said, ‘it’s not a nice name for a great old girl like her’.

A name that encapsulated the state of being that we get from being aboard was called for, and Serenity fit the bill perfectly.

As we are on our new mooring, with change all around us and a new life in central London ahead of us, now seemed like the perfect time to change the name, especially as the name of the boat is now the first line of our address. So we are now signed up with the mooring as MV Serenity, and all that remained was to change the name on the boat itself.

The existing name was beginning to flake off anyway,

so it was easy to remove ‘Peter’ from the bows. We jet washed the whole bow, cleaning it down now we can reach it, and getting some of the paint off,

then Lorna got busy with the wire brush on the angle grinder and soon had the name erased (notice that the boat at some point was painted green),


I then had to go out for a couple of hours, and when I returned, Peter was no more and we were living aboard The Ship With No Name.


Lorna then found a great 1930's font and created letters the right size, which she cut out and taped into place, and then drew round with a chinagraph to give a guide for painting,

before getting out her best paintbrush and getting to work




Now we just need to redo the pattern on the front and she'll be done.

7 comments:

bowiechick said...

Love it. Much better than Peter.

MFV Pansy said...

Peter's not that bad, our old Fifie is Called Pansy! but we've grown to love it

Watergeus said...

I need to put my name on my ship as well. Did you make the name on computer first? If so, what font did you use?

Kind regards
Frederic
MS Watergeus

Peter Brown said...

I'm hurt, offended, and upset by your cruel efforts to erase me. I will stand tall against the aggressor! Allow me if you will to quote a passage which sums up my feelings:
We shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Name, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender.

rob said...

Great font, very Poirot`y mind the hair in the power tools :o))

steve said...

Hi frederic,
yes, we printed out the word from the computer. I can't remember which font it was, we just went on a couple of free font websites and looked at 1930's fonts, as that was when she was built.

steve said...

...and pete, it's quite the opposite. There is only room for one Peter in this family, and that is you! Your throne is safe...