Iam not a superstitious person by nature however when it comes to boating, I have one that I cant seem to shake.

No Bananas on board. Period. While I love this delicious and tasty fruit, the few times we have brought these on board, something bad has occurred, usual mechanical.

Anybody else have any superstitions that you abide by?

I have a no banana rule as well because I can't stand the smell of them.

The only superstition I have is that my water skis have to face with the tips forward while being stowed. A wakeboard can go either way as technically a person can WB both directions even though I can't.

Well shiver me timbers I never heard the one about the banana... and just today I was thinking about what types of foods to bring along, and a few apples and bananas were high on the list. I always eat a couple apples every day. I guess I can live without the banana but it seemed like a quick and easy food to bring. Sigh... what is it about bananas that make it a superstitious no-no for a boat?

I love bananas so no prohibitions there. My only superstition is about renaming a boat. I didn't follow protocol on the first 330 when I renamed her and she got totaled by that drunk boater.

If I ever buy another boat you can bet your bippy I'll closely follow the rules about renaming.

BTW, the only prohibition I have on bringing items on board applies to red wine. Too easy to spill a glass if wine and too tough to clean red wine from carpeting, vinyls and gelcoat.

If y'all needs to drink red wine I'll show you the way to the swim ladder.

Lots of different theories on Bananas and bad luck, goes back to the old wooden shipping days that you can look up on the web.

I wouldnt normally care about such silliness but on separate occassions early in our boating days, we had some mechanical breakdowns on separate occassions in which coincidently we had brought bananas for snack food.

My wife had later read the superstition and now Bananas do not even leave the kitchen before we go boating.

I have no particular superstition on colored food but we do have strict rules banning food or drink that can easily stain such as Cheeto's. We are not wine drinkers but Red Wine would be monitored very closely!

Tami - it is indeed important to follow the renaming rituals. Since you are renaming your boat. I also didnt follow protocol on my 268 and we ended up striking a submerged tree which took out the outdrive.

Ouch. Yeah, I have the renaming ritual printed out. LOL I am not overly superstitious, but there's no good to come from tempting the devil either.

I agree with the no cheetos rule. I like wine, love red wine, but pinot will do just fine aboard, thank you. Oh, and no sax before a fight (courtesy of Police Squad).

Sailors since the 17th century have known that a woman on board would make the seas angry and was considered bad luck. Fortunately they also learned that a naked woman on board, with eyes wide open, would calm an angry sea. This of course led to the use of figureheads of the female form. Initially these figure heads were carved in the likeness of the ship owner's wife. All good things to know if caught offshore in a storm.

Shoot, that's what I did wrong when I was overtaken by a storm, I handed the Admiral a life jacket instead of taking her clothes.

I'll show this thread to her. I'm sure she will want to have calmer waters next time.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaait wait wait... I'm pretty sure now all these superstitions were thought up by drunken MEN trying to explain away their incompetence at sea.

I'm OK with the drunken part, but incompetence at sea?

Any mechanical service done by me to the boat requires an offering of my blood. Last time my son helped me an he stepped up to the plate on this ritual. Makes a father proud.

LOL or in the case like yours mentioned Budd: natural phenomenon, or GFCs other men's incompetence. however, the superstitions probably all had their roots in the bottom of a few barrels of beer.

+1 on the blood sacrifice.

We also were sure to christen our boat with the new name. While we didn't break a bottle over the bow, we did pour just a little wine over it, promptly washed it off before it could leave a stain, then drank the rest. That was a fun ritual.

Every season I make a sacrificial offering to the Gods of the lake usually in the form of a piece of my prop. After swearing and spending $50 to have it repaired my season then goes without a hitch.