Bavarian Cream Offically Gets Christened

Although we've had our boat and were calling her Bavarian Cream for almost 8 months, we had not officially changed her name from that chosen by the previous owner. To bring this about we broke down and ordered new name and hailing port decals which set us back a couple hundred bucks (geez, boating is expensive!). The lettering Jane picked was black offset with a reflective gold border, 8 inches high and 66 inches long in Brush Script font. The hailing port (Killian, LA) was done in a 5 inch Ariel font that matched. Then came the fun part- getting the old name decal off. Larry started with a heat gun and a scraper, but after removing only parts of the first letter after 25 minutes, decided that this method was just going to eventually result in scorching the transom's gelcoat (there was still the high setting left). Although he knew (the pharmacy degree and knowledge of chemistry finally pays off!) some good organic solvents (acetone, methylketone, methanol, etc.) would rapidly do the job, he was afraid they might turn the finish into something akin to a skin disease. Jane and Google came to the rescue with an internet search on recommended methods, the top two being Easy Off Oven Cleaner and a hair dryer-scraper combination with lots of patience. With a proclivity toward all things chemical, Larry opted for the oven cleaner, even though he had is doubts because it is basically inorganic lye. Well the first couple of sprays on the transom resulted in a nasty looking yellow stains and didn't budge the lettering a bit! Panic set in when the stains could not be rubbed out with soap and water and new spots were developing on the swim platform from the transom overspray. After several corrective measures, he finally broke down and used acetone, logic being it couldn't get any worse. Well it worked and the stains were rubbed out to where they only faintly appeared. At this point, Jane was on the boat with nail polish remove (primarily acetone) and some cute little cotton balls. Still leery of a widespread acetone application, Larry worked the hair dryer-scraper solution. About three hours later all of the lettering was off, but an adhesive film from the old decal still needed to be removed. From the start, he always knew that the job would involve chemical solvents even though he went to great lengths to avoid them. Having spent a great deal of time, patience, and energy to remove the old lettering, he grabbed the acetone and liberally applied it to the film. Yes, it was to the screw it point! Amazingly, the film was gone in minutes with little expended effort and no damage to the finish. He then quietly cursed himself for not going this route in the first place. After the transom was declared clean as a whistle, Jane and Larry applied the new decals according to the directions with really professional results. We celebrated by taking Bavarian Cream down the river so everyone (all 2 of them!) could see her new name.

But wait! It's not all that easy. Nautical lore has it that all boat names are registered with the ruler of the deep and bad luck will come to any boat that has it's name changed without the proper renaming ritual. You can read about this ceremony by following this link for renaming a boat. Now we don't want to offend the gods of the deep, but this idea of pouring good champagne into the water to appease them for re-registering our boat when we could be drinking it just didn't make any sense. So we decided we'd take our chances and drink their share which is exactly what we did. Besides, if they really deserved any libations, they could have helped get the old lettering off! Say, do you think champagne would work better than oven cleaner...