Do you have to have your boat name on your boat?

[Zagato]

I have little room to put a name on mine due to a pin stripe and very low freeboard. Those that do have names on their IF Boats don,t look right to me as they are either squeezed in and too small (to read anyway) or overlap the stripe, although not many have names on them abroad. Some put the name on the coachroof instead. My boat name is on horrible dodgers which I don,t think looks right on a svelte little boat. I am also not keen on the name 'Elpenor' (something about a drunk falling off a building!) so I may just not put a name on. It is probably the only yacht with an orange hull in the Solent so not hard to identify in an emergency. Is a Boat name displayed a must?

 

[RichardS]

I believe that a boat name, on the transom at least, is required as part of the SSR in the UK although it might well be that only the SSR number must be displayed. In other countries, it may be a requirement to display a registered name and number under local rules.

Richard

 

[doug748]

It can be handy at times for folk to be able to positively identify your boat, at the very least you can point to the name when the Harbourmaster comes round for his loot, which saves misunderstandings, spelling it out etc. Similarly if there is a problem on your mooring, a name gets around much better than a woolly description.

I think the best spot on an IF boat is on the coachroof sides in the region of the forward hatch. In a small, classic, serif font it can look very smart.

If you register the boat, hide the number on the transom where it can't be seen : -)

PS.

IIRC when I had one of the type, the first thing I did was to remove the name from the transom - looked very odd split each side of the rudder.

.

 

[rogerthebodger]

Ship registration (part 1) and maybe (part 3) is governed to the UN law of the sea convention to which UK is a signatory as is South Africa.

Here we need the registered name on each side of the bow and on the stern. The port of registration also must be on the stern.

The name and registration number must be "carved" on the main beam of the vessel but mostly its these days on a Plaque somewhere prominent

The registration number also needs to be displayed on the vessel normally on the side towards the stern.

https://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/unclos_e.pdf

 

[northwind]

Either side on the bow?
And change the name.. Tango Tango maybe?

 

[C08]

There are two other boats with the same name as mine in the Solent, which are also catamarans of the same makewhich sometimes confuses people who think they know me?
My previous boat a Macwester 26 called Marcus was even more confusing as there was also a Marcus1, Marcus2 and Marcus3 all Macwester 26's and all N Wales and the NW!

 

[Black Sheep]

There is no requirement to register a boat in the UK. And no requirement under UK law (that I know of!) to display the name if not registered... or even to have one.

however... there may be a requirement under local bylaws for harbours you may wish to use.

And if you go foreign, everything changes.

I can see potential issues if there's no name anywhere. How can you prove the boat is yours? (unless there's a hidden Hull number somewhere). How can you demonstrate to your insurers that this is the boat they insured? Doug748's suggestions make sense to me

 

[johnalison]

Although you can identify your boat by sail number, it is still probably a good idea to have some other form of identification. Dodgers are probably the most readable, I have never had them myself. I have been upbraided by the odd Dutchman for not having my home port written on the boat too, and they seem unconvinced by my telling them that it is not a legal requirement for unregistered boats.

How and where you put the boat's name depends on the design of boat. Our sugar scoop includes a stepped section and doesn't have room for a name of any size, though that is where we had the name of our Sadler 29. HRs have a stripe where most of us put our name, and then it becomes a matter of whether to use bow, or stern quarter. I have mine at the stern quarter, in lower case with a single capital, for readability, but the style really depends much on the name itself and its length, but I find short names in capitals hard to read sometimes.

 

[FlyingGoose]

As roger said part 1 registration by law the boat name and port must be on the transom
Part3 the SSR number must be shown 2 sides at a certain height of letters not sure in boat name part 3
No registration no law for boat name

 

[RichardS]

Part3 the SSR number must be shown 2 sides at a certain height of letters not sure in boat name part 3

I'm not in the UK but I have only placed one SSR number on my transom. Are you sure that two stickers are required?

Richard

 

[NormanS]

I've always thought that people who don't have a name shown on their boats, are somehow ashamed of them. ?
(And that includes those with names on transoms, who then obscure then with dinghies).

 

[Hoolie]

I'm not in the UK but I have only placed one SSR number on my transom. Are you sure that two stickers are required?

Richard

It's unclear but I think a single visible SSR number is all that is required. Our boat came with a single number on the port coach roof side but I have since applied numbers to both sides. AFAIK in France the name and home port need to be displayed on the transom. I have also put the name on the bow topsides as is common in the UK but that's hardly ever seen in here France.

 

[johnalison]

I've always thought that people who don't have a name shown on their boats, are somehow ashamed of them. ?
(And that includes those with names on transoms, who then obscure then with dinghies).

The transom is the traditional place for boats that are generally like Folkboats, even though the name can be hard to read. I suppose that it is to some extend a hangover from the day when there were few yachts around and with many of them one-offs it would have been easy to identify a given boat by sight. There are now more reasons to have a visible identification, varying from the requirement of some authorities and the need to identify one's own boat after a heavy evening ashore. Apart from the needs of registration I think it just comes down to aesthetics and an individual owner's wishes.

 

[Birdseye]

Never mind a name! How can you tell the marina office that it’s an eight meter boat when the maker has put XYZ 35 on the side? That has to be the first thing to go!

 

[Graham376]

AFAIK in France the name and home port need to be displayed on the transom.

Same here in Portugal, foreign boats have been impounded for not complying.

 

[LadyInBed]

Either side on the bow?
And change the name.. Tango Tango maybe?

My thought as well.
If you go SSR then the number should be on the transom.

 

[Zagato]

She is registered with the SSR in the last keepers name which I should update to me.

 

[Wansworth]

Call it .....if

 

[Tomahawk]

There are two other boats with the same name as mine in the Solent, which are also catamarans of the same makewhich sometimes confuses people who think they know me?
My previous boat a Macwester 26 called Marcus was even more confusing as there was also a Marcus1, Marcus2 and Marcus3 all Macwester 26's and all N Wales and the NW!

Was yours the first with the name?

 

[dansaskip]

Regardless of any legal or technical requirement I would have thought that any owner might be proud of their boat and it’s name so would want the boats name displayed. I am and so do.