Boat Christening: Capacity Decides Who Comes Aboard

The skipper of the boat you've hired for the christening asks how many people are coming. You say 'around thirty'. He checks the safety certificate and tells you the boat takes twenty-eight. Not 'around twenty-eight' — twenty-eight, adults and children counted separately. That single number is what decides a boat christening, long before the flowers do.

Everything else about the day can move: the cake, the playlist, the toast. The headcount can't. Get it right first and the rest of the morning has room to breathe.

Fix your boat christening numbers before you choose the boat

Ask for the exact number of adults and the exact number of children, and write both down. 'We'll be about thirty' is not something a skipper can work with — he's counting places under a safety certificate, not chairs he can pull up to a table. The count also has to include the people who don't drink, the ones who only come to the harbour to wave you off, and the aunt who calls on Thursday to say she's coming after all. Count the worst case, not the best one.

• The exact number of adults and the exact number of children, settled before you book the boat.
• A departure time chosen for how the sea usually behaves at that hour, not for the light in the photographs.
• A meeting point on land for anyone who isn't boarding.
• One place where the departure time, the harbour and the map live, updated if anything changes.

Seasickness isn't fixed on the morning of the christening

Ask about seasickness when people confirm, not when the boat is already moving. It's the one detail you can't rearrange later, the way you'd move a chair at a table. Some guests will tell you straight away. Others will say nothing, then spend the whole trip at the back of the boat staring at the horizon.

Choose the departure hour around how the sea normally behaves at that time, not around the light that will look best in the photos. And if two or three guests would rather not risk it, give them somewhere to wait on land. A café facing the harbour means nobody ends up sitting alone in a parked car for two hours.

On a boat, the guest list is a number, not a mood. Get the number before you order the flowers.

A 'yes' is not a number of people

A message that says 'we're coming' doesn't tell you how many places to count. You need adults and children separately. Set the questions on your confirmation form so they ask for the number of guests, not just the name of whoever is replying.

If replies arrive by phone call, message and word of mouth, the final count will be off by two or three. On a boat, that's the difference between sailing on time and leaving someone standing on the quay. A digital invitation keeps the confirmations in one ordered list inside the invitation itself, so you're not chasing answers the night before. You can change the time, the harbour or the map afterwards and the link stays the same — guests open it and see the current version.

Paper on board lasts as long as the wind

A printed invitation gets wet, blows off the bench and crumples at the bottom of a bag before the toast. A harbour is not a dining room. The sensible combination is one link for everyone and a handful of printed copies for the people who'll keep them in a drawer.

Set up the invitation, send the link, and check the numbers against your confirmation list before you call the skipper. Guests don't need to install anything — they open the link on their phone, reply from there, and every answer lands in the same place. Then put the phone away and enjoy the morning on the water.