What's with the name?

Boat names are a touchy subject. Some people put a lot of time and effort into coming up with just the right name that will convey the desired image to the rest of the world. Others, like us, just kind of roll with it. If Ti' Punch conveys anything to the rest of the world about us, it should be this... we are lazy.

We bought our boat from a wonderful man named Earl Beard. He had bought the boat 14 years earlier out of a Caribbean charter fleet where all of the boats had been named after rum drinks. He selected the most worthy vessel on offer, which just happened to be named Ti' Punch.

Not exactly inspirational right? Earl explained that he had experienced a run of extremely bad luck after changing the name of a previous boat, and had decided to just leave well enough alone with Ti' Punch. By the time we bought the boat, she had been sailing under the name Ti' Punch for all of her 18 years of existence.

There is a procedure for changing a boat's name. Properly followed, this procedure is said to remove all traces of bad luck from the act of changing a boat name. For us though, it didn't seem right to change the name after all that time. I did make the token offer to rename the boat after my lovely bride, but being a modest creature, she demurred. So there you have it. Ti' Punch it is.

What is a Ti' Punch? It is a simple rum drink made from Rum Agricole (white rum), lime, and sugar to taste. A google search will yield a number of links, but the recipe is essentially the same. Very simple, very tasty.