Lucky Lifejacket (Drew Clutterbuck)

Title: Lucky Lifejacket

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

B.B. is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2023 who plans on majoring in english. He was born and raised in Irvington, Virginia where he began sailing at the age of 7. Since then he has competed all over the world and is currently sailing for the varsity sailing team at Dartmouth.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: In the sport of sailing, each competitor is required to wear a US Coast Guard approved Personal Flotation Device (PFD), otherwise known as a Life Jacket. These are vests that are worn around the torso and allow the wearer to stay afloat if they fall into the water, which is especially important if the sailor is knocked unconscious into the water.
Social Context: This superstition was collected over facetime in November of 2021 when asking if the informant had any personal or team superstitions. He originally learned this superstition at the age of 12 or 13 when he began to get into the mental side of the sport, which was pretty weak for him. His coach at the time wanted him to get into more of a routine and the informant adopted many of his current superstitions, including this one, from said coach. There are several other people that the informant knows of, in the sailing world as well as on the Dartmouth sailing team that carry this same superstition.

Item:

The superstition that was collected is the idea that if the informant wears the same life jacket that he has been wearing for the majority of his life, then he will do better in the regatta and it will bring him good luck on the water.

Transcript:

“I have many superstitions… one is that I always wear the same life jacket on regatta days. I think if I wear this life jacket then I am more likely to do well and have good luck. I developed it probably when I was 12 or 13, I was travelling with different teams to get new help from different coaches and they were helping me with my mental side which was pretty weak… I know this is a pretty common superstition both in college sailing and the sailing world in general.”

Informant’s Comments:

“I do actually believe in this superstition. I believe that if I am not wearing this life jacket, I will feel off and will have bad luck.”

Collector’s Comments:

I found this superstition interesting as it is focused on what the competitor is wearing. It could just be out of a feeling of familiarity and comfort that this superstition comes from.

Collector’s Name: Drew Clutterbuck

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive