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Explain your boat's name

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RichardG
Admiral

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USA
990 Posts

Response Posted - 11/13/2003 : 18:57:41

We named her after discovering that sailing was one of the most sane things in our life, in contrast to the many stressfull things like finances, my business, the commute across LA to get there, health care, etc.

Edited by - on

oldsalt
Admiral

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USA
578 Posts

Response Posted - 11/13/2003 : 20:23:55

During my college days back in the sixties, I used to perform in clubs on weekends to make a few bucks and since the Simon and Garfunkle song "Bridge Over Troubled Water" was so popular, I like everyone else who performed in clubs those days used that song in my act.

My boat's name "Silver Girl" comes from the passage:

"Sail on Silver Girl
Sail on by
Your time has come to shine
All your dreams are on their way"

When I bought Silver Girl in '83 I special ordered her to be built with silver- grey topsides and decks (which have held up great since then).

Buying that boat is best money I've ever spent, and although a lot of water has passed under that bridge since then, I still look back at her each time I leave her at her slip after a day's sail.

Edited by - on

Doug G.
1st Mate

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USA
49 Posts

Response Posted - 11/13/2003 : 20:54:52

My 83 C25 is currently named 'Glory Bound'. Although we may be, It seemed a little much. Original owner had it named 'Windy Deck', family's name was Deck. Our name selection process included input from my 17 yo daughter, 21yo son., and perpetually youthful wife. We tried " Grateful DAD' and multiple other music references, no consensus. Then we tried 'Knees in the Breeze' referring to my work, too long. We tried out 'Pelican's Glide' for several weeks. This was my wife's favorite. Two years ago we lived on the coast of SE Georgia, and she loved to watch the pelicans soar in formation. We finally all agreed on 'Pelican'. Short, but carries the same memory. I am sure there is some old salt's bad luck associated with boat names and birds that mess up boatdocks.
This is my first sailboat and my Marina owners say I have to throw a party for the renaming ceremony. OK by me.

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sailgal
Captain

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USA
400 Posts

Response Posted - 11/13/2003 : 20:58:57

What great fun reading how you all came to name your boats! I too struggled for a unique, original yet easy to understand name over the VHF. One night at 3am it came to me. I dreamed of living in a tropical location all my life

, so I finally left the burbs of cold NYC 3 years ago. You can't escape your roots....After spending the first half of my life gliding on frozen water(snow) on my Flexible Flyer sled, I now plan to spend the second half of my life gliding on warm water in Florida..via a sailboat....Thus my boats name came to me "Tropical Sleigh" Ha, I did mention it came to me at 3am!

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NuNees
Navigator

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USA
125 Posts

Response Posted - 11/13/2003 : 21:06:21

40 years ago my date didn't show up for a hay ride ... I met my wife.
The nxt weekend we went to a dance ... and the rest is history, as they say. At the dance, Frank Sinatra sang a song that has remained with us for all these years ... 'Polka Dots and Moonbeams'.
So that is what we named our boat ... 'Moonbeams' on the side makes it easy to be hailed. But we still remember those first weeks together. Now, Moonbeams keeps us close.

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bren737
Captain

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291 Posts

Response Posted - 11/13/2003 : 23:27:49

I, too, think I've posted this before, but for the record again. . .

The day before I was to take delivery of my boat we were attending a get together with some friends from our church. Several of them knew that I was anxiously awaiting the 'delivery date' and were inquiring if I had come up with a name for her yet. When I was asked this by our sister (nun), I told her I had not yet settled on one and was still soliciting ideas. She thought for a minute and said "How about 'Ruah'"? I asked her what that meant and she explained it was from the book of Genesis and was Hebrew for 'the breath of God, the Spirit'. It was the 'ruah' that God breathed as life into man. I was pretty taken with the idea.

About ten minutes later, another friend also inquired about the pending delivery and name. I asked her what she would name a boat if she had one and after a few seconds she blurts out, "I'd name it 'Ruah', which is Hebrew for 'the breath of God'." This friend had NOT talked to the Sister and had no idea of our previous conversation. My wife and I smiled and looked at each other and knew what the name would be!

. . . As an aside, a friend of mine who has a 44(?) ft Morgan named her 'Sea Cups', which is inspired, he says, by his wife's figure

Edited by - bren737 on 11/13/2003 23:30:38

frog0911
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1349 Posts

Response Posted - 11/13/2003 : 23:41:22

When we purchased our first C25 in 1988, I was in college working on another degree and using up my GI Bill. Well it was either that or get a job; that was the ultimatum I was given by you know who. Needless to say with 4 kids, me in school, and only a retirement check there wasn't a lot of $$$$ to go around. We looked for a boat in good shape, got financing and made our purchase. The General remarked as we left the bank check in hand, "that's a PRETTY PENNY to pay for a 10 year old boat." Thus the name of the first. Well if you think that was alot, when we order the new yacht there was no other chose. I want PP III for three times as much, but the General said no that she was the Second. We all know the General is always right, don't we??

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tmhansen
Captain

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USA
397 Posts

Response Posted - 11/14/2003 : 01:50:39

The day after my wife and I became engaged we went and saw the play "Philadelphia Story". (See the movie with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn) In it the wealthy lovers had a boat made and named it "True Love" and sigh when the remember how "she was yar". We named our first boat True Love. We took some ribbing on the race course but I did not mind.
No longer newly weds, we now have our second boat to name. True Love II was out of the question. In the play, Traci Lord tells her former lover that she will blow any boat named True Love II out of the water. Using the internet we searched for appropriate translations to other languages. In Danish it was too wordy, but in Gaelic it is Fior Gra' (at least we think it is). Since our kids names are Irish as well it seemed a good fit. Someday we plan on replacing the stripes on the sides. When we do we will install the new name in the middle of a pair of stripes terminated at the bow and stern in a celtic knot pattern.

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Ben
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1234 Posts

Response Posted - 11/14/2003 : 08:59:59

My wife and I will have owned our C25 for a year in December. The boat was named Adventurous by the previous owner. We liked the name, so we kept it. My wife and I were married on the Nautica Queen in Cleveland. Our first and second boats were named Nautica Queen II & III, respectivly. My wife has always loved "Heart of Gold," from the book, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but I didn't like that.

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Chip Hunt
Navigator

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120 Posts

Response Posted - 11/14/2003 : 09:08:59

when i purchased my boat, it was named ambivalence. i didnt really care for that name. the second season i had the boat, we hauled it out to have it anti-fouled, and discovered that it had a rash of small blisters, and a few big ones. they sandblasted the bottom, and the boat sat in stacks for over a month drying out. i remember thinking at the time that it was slowly but surely drying out, and that it would soon be what i wanted it to be. as time wore on, and the boat sat on stacks, i continued to think of a new name for it. nothing seemed to stick. one day, as i was thinking about 'slowly but surely,' a more appropriate name popped into my head: 'Slowly but Maybe.' i thought that it was creative, and it applied to the situation that my boat was in, and the name just stuck. the dinghy is named 'Maybe Knot.'

Slowly but Maybe, 84 fk/tr

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Doug
Captain

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USA
457 Posts

Response Posted - 11/14/2003 : 10:01:41

We wanted a unique name, vaguely Northwestish sounding, with a twist. Ended up with "Noeta." Doesn't have any obvious meanings. When people ask about it we tell them to spell it out load: NO ETA.

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Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 11/14/2003 : 10:54:21

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Ben
 My wife has always loved "Heart of Gold," from the book, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but I didn't like that.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Thanks Ben! I'm going to name my boat Babel Fish.

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Charlie Vick
Captain

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USA
423 Posts

Response Posted - 11/14/2003 : 12:19:04

Panacea- "A remedy for all ills or difficulties"
The original owner (I'm the third) named her and the PO kept it and I've grown to like it but I would still like to come up with my own name for her.
Just the word Panacea sounds peaceful though.
Would someone please tell me exactly what is involved in a renaming ceremony.

CVick
PanaceaII '81 C25 #2439 SRSK
Fort Smith, AR

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MattL
Admiral

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USA
990 Posts

Response Posted - 11/14/2003 : 13:03:38

The boat my dad bought when I was in high school was called Matt-A-Harry. My name and his.
The Cat25 my wife and I have now is named after our two sons, Everett and Casey - E.C. Rider. Mom and the younger, Everett are more horse oriented so they like the name.

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KTwomey
1st Mate

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USA
43 Posts

Response Posted - 11/14/2003 : 13:42:25

Charlie,

Here's a link to explain the re-naming ceremony.

http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/rename.htm

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DrDre
1st Mate

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USA
68 Posts

Response Posted - 11/14/2003 : 14:02:20

Having my own boat has been a childhood dream of mine and when the opportunity fell into my lap this summer I couldn't pass it up. Naming her though was a bit of a dilema because my girlfriend and I wanted something that reflected how we felt when we sailed but also something that revealed a bit about our own personalities. We each came up with 5 names and the first one on her list fit perfectly. "Ananda" The name is Sanskrit and it's one of the three elements that make up all of the universe. The whole phrase is: "Sat Chit Ananda", which means "Truth, Consciouness, Bliss". So "Ananda" means Bliss.

Of course over the VHF people always think we're saying aManda, but that's somthing we can live with.

happy sails,
Andre'

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Charlie Vick
Captain

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USA
423 Posts

Response Posted - 11/14/2003 : 14:03:43

Thanks Ken, thats what I needed!

CVick
PanaceaII '81 C25 #2439 SRSK
Fort Smith, AR

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Tim from Seattle
Deckhand

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5 Posts

Response Posted - 11/14/2003 : 15:01:37

I bought a C27 in 1989 that I had sailed on (as crew) since new in 1986. The PO had named her "Wind Dancer" and I thought that was pretty trite - not as bad as "Fantasea", but I saw another boat named Wind Dancer the very day I took delivery.

I went through the renaming ceremony and christened her "Inamorata" - I had read and article that mentioned that Jerrie Hall was Mick Jagger's Inamorata. I means "mistress", lover, that kind of thing.

Over the years, people would ask me what "Inamorata" meant - and my buddies and I would make stuff up like "I have eaten well", and "Tight Butts Drive me Nuts".

Since those single days, I've married and this last year my wife and I traded Inamorata in on a new C350 and deliberated long and hard on a name. We settled on "April IV" - when we met, we were happily surprised to find that we both shared the same birthday - April 4th.

Now people ask "Is this really your fourth boat named April?"

Tim
April IV C350 #68
Seattle

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nate
Navigator

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240 Posts

Response Posted - 11/14/2003 : 22:01:10

My wife and I are both nurses and we both love sailing. I guess the name describes what we do for a living and what sailing does for our lives.
The play on words is just more of the nautical silliness that is behind so many boat names.

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gnorgan
Admiral

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USA
563 Posts

Response Posted - 11/15/2003 : 00:08:41

My turn: My wife and I both enjoy listening to classical music and jazz. I play lots of classical music in the local orchestra and jazz in the band at times. Cat comes from both one who digs jazz and Catalina, the boat and the island we like sailing to. It took us at least a year to come up with this name...we had a list of around 30 names stuck to the refrigerator for a long time. If I ever get tired and need to change it I might opt for "Suzie Q" (you know, "baby I love you") which is what I called my wife in our early years and sometimes even now (32+ years so far). We go sailing tomorrow in Mission Bay....maybe I should ask her about renaming our boat?

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tinob
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1883 Posts

Response Posted - 11/15/2003 : 09:09:09

Calista... nothing fancy...just the best teacher I ever had. Sister Calista...Seventy three years and counting...some others came close, but not quite.

Val on the hard DAGNABIT

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Arlyn Stewart
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2980 Posts

Response Posted - 11/15/2003 : 11:36:07

My boat also went nameless for a year or so when shortly after my father passed, I was communicating with a sister some thoughts which included my abiding appreciation for my father and his character. I made a comment to her that he had inherited much of it from his father (our grandfather) and both these Richards were heroes in my life.

The moment struck me to honor them.

btw.... great thread, thanks Jim... I've really enjoyed reading each of the naming stories.

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FrankM
Deckhand

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USA
7 Posts

Response Posted - 11/15/2003 : 12:21:56

My boat Was SMOGEN (with an umlot over the "O") when I got it,
And I'm keeping the name because I read that it's bad luck to change a boats name. Luckilly I ran into a Sweedish exchange student at a party, who told me SMOGEN is a yachting town in Sweeden where the really rich upper crust keep their boats.
La dee da da, well I'll never get there, but I got a boat anyway...FM

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ronrryan
Admiral

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USA
561 Posts

Response Posted - 11/15/2003 : 20:15:45

My wife, the admiral claims (unjustly) that we have had twenty-seven boats, but that is unfair. She counts dinghies and canoes, not right. Also she implies, perhaps actually states, that this signifies severe pathology. That is to be expected: she is a PhD clinical psychologist and EVERYTHING represents pathology (not so, actually---a behaviorist) All our boats are named ORION because (a) its alliterative to Ryan (b) It is the constellation of the Hunter (c) a grand constellation to look at, that we sought out when sailing at night (d) I have been a hunter for fifty years or so (e) we cruised for many years on a (gasp) Cherubini Hunter 27. Ron srsk Orion

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JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 11/16/2003 : 14:03:43

Thanks so much for sharing, and I feel like I know all of you so much better after reading your stories. Pelican, Moonbeams, Fior Gra, Adventurous, you win the awards so far for the most romantic stories! For so many others, your boat names represent incredible emotions, reverence, and a link to the mystical/religious.

Indiscipline, representing irreverance, seems so out of place!

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