01/09/2026
Last week, I stepped aboard a client's newly purchased Bermuda Ketch - once owned and operated by a European navy - and stumbled upon something rather curious in the wheelhouse: a single Euro coin πͺ, fixed firmly to the floor.
Now, I am familiar with the old tradition of placing a coin at the foot of the mast. Roman sailors did it to pay their passage to the afterlife should the voyage go badly, and the custom has sailed down through the centuries ever since. But a coin in the wheelhouse? That was new to me.
Here is the puzzle. The vessel dates from the 1960s, yet the coin is a Euro, a currency that did not exist until decades later. So it was clearly placed long after she was built. Which raises the question: if a coin like this is a good luck charm, can it be replaced without upsetting the magic?
I would love to hear your thoughts. Why do you think the coin found its home in the wheelhouse?