Little boat takes on big new name

POSEIDON’S name was invoked several times during ceremonies held on Saturday at the Ballarat Yacht Club as part of a renaming event for a boat.

Members gathered to celebrate the restoration of a Jubilee class yacht by Joe Luciani.

The boat had a long history that took it around the state before Mr Luciani came to restore it over three months.

“We decided that we would pursue this activity as a form of entertainment and we looked at this boat and felt that it had potential and in restoring it I was able to do things that left a bit of my touch to it,” he said.

Restoration work included repainting, new timber throughout, a reworked and rerigged mast, and a new boom, rudder and tiller. There’s also Mr Luciani’s personal touch, a wolf decal on the bow of the boat. He was assisted by the Club’s Rear-Commodore, Eric Johnson.

“Eric was very helpful,” Mr Luciani said. As part of the renaming ceremony a 50c piece was given in tribute to Poseidon, or Neptune – being more appropriate to Mr Luciani’s Italian heritage.

The crowd was told that renaming a boat was often unlucky and only the charmed we’re able to break the curse. In partial aid of that a bottle of Prosecco poured into the lake to appease the god of the sea.

Mr Luciani’s yacht had her name changed from Arctic Tern to Maiella, a massif in central-Italy that he could see from his childhood home.

The event took place in conjunction with the Ballarat Bertie Sharpie Trophy competition.