Joe wrote:
Anyone know where the custom of putting a coin under a mast started?
What's it for?

To pay the crew's toll for the ferry on the Styx River when she goes
down.
Pleasant thought.
Those old timers were really a lot of pessimists.

Bob wrote:
My Swedish step dad commercial fished the PNW all his life said, you
put a silver dollar under the mast for good luck. He also said a boat
painted any other color but what was trying to hid something. When I
was running some DC wire in the ceiling of my 1979 Freya I found a
1979 penny glued to the over head. I smiled.


heh heh when I bought a 20+ year old Lightning to sail & restore, I
found the the previous & only owner of the boat, a very wealthy man,
had drilled through pennies to use as washers. There were at least 120
of them all through the boat.

When I pull my mast this winter Im going to glass in an 1879 silver
dollar for the same reason I:
1) removed anything with the boats original name on it.
2) completed a de-naming and christening ceremony.


Which one? There are several floating around. When we changed the name
of our boat, we simply re-christened it. No bad luck so far, but then
the previous name was so childish & repugnant that I'm sure the gods &
goddesses of the sea never took it seriously.


Under my main mast I have a 5 dollar coin from the Bucket of Blood
casino, and under the mizzen a JFK 50 cent coin.


Bucket of Blood??? Humm, my mom welded WW2 Liberty Ships for JA Jones
in Miss. She talked about a place called the Bucket of Blood. Same
place?

Could be, but it's been a really long time and the Gulf casinos have
attracted some big money owners, none are in WW2 era buildings.


Why not get a real gold doubloon? In boat money, they're relatively
cheap.
http://cgi.ebay.com/2-Escudos-Gold-C...QQcmdZViewItem

or
http://tinyurl.com/2lovk7

I may get one for my next boat.

Fresh BReezes- Doug King