What's in a name?

Just curious.
What is the name of your boat and how did you come by it?

My boat is the Apache II. It was built by a Yancee Apache.**He built 2 of them Both power trollers. *I was told.**The first went to Florida Mine is in Alaska.* About as far apart as you can get in the same country.

SD

"Flyin' Low"...I fly airplanes for a living. It was a compromise with my wife. I am a Pilot. Our boat model is a Pilot. It is my discretionary income that funds it. A very common clearance in aviation is "Pilot's discretion".....which would have been a great boat name for our boat in my not very important opinion... But I do like "Flyin' Low". I actually participated in many car forums and Flynlo was my user name/handle on those. SO when we were trying to decide on a name, my wife suggested it and I liked it.

Names that were in consideration:

Rhumb Dumb
Riviera Paradise ....best song on Earth by Stevie Ray Vaughan
Comfortably Numb....also a favorite song by Pink Floyd

And one more that I will keep under my hat for future use....

"Moon Dance" was on the boat when we bought it.* I think it's a bit, um, ah,* ..... let's just say "not masculine".* But the SO doesn't like "Curmudgeon".* And she was having no part of "Cooter Scooter".

Great stuff.**Funny!* Lets keep this going. I love it

SD

Pioneer came with the name...and it's kinda appropriate since she's done a lot of sea miles around the coasts of both Australia and New Zealand and has crossed the Tasman Sea.

There is another "Pioneer" here in Auckland which is a Stewart 34 sailboat - all of which have names starting with "P". First one was Patiki (Maori name).

Boats which I have named:
Airship - 30ft racing sailboat
China Beach - 32 ft express cruiser (Chinese SO at that time)
Escapade - 36ft Riviera SF - was called Swift Venture but that sounded like a race-horse!

It's only bad luck to change the name of a boat if you named it originally.

-- Edited by Bendit on Wednesday 2nd of June 2010 03:50:51 PM

Skinny Dippin'

No major explanation needed here. But just in case...

We likes to swimz nekkid and wit no clo zon!

(She's probably the most photographed transom in the marina.)



-- Edited by GonzoF1 on Wednesday 2nd of June 2010 04:57:29 PM

When we were shopping for boats we started to call the Willard "Willy". It stuck. There is another Willie (that is a Willard but it's spelled w the "ie". Was in PMM going to Bermuda.

Our boat before Willy was a 25' Albin. One of the smallest Trawlers worthy of that category designation at only 2 tons disp. I still miss Trawlerette. I called her that just to say "small trawler". I don't think one could design a better 2 ton trawler. We ran her to Juneau and back in 03. I think a boat's name should say something special about the boat (not the owner) relating to what it is that makes her stand out among her peers. A very long and narrow sailboat in Everett is named "Longfellow". Also I think the city or town under her name should the boat's home port * *..not where the owner lives.*A name should be respectful of the boat and her home port is part of her name. Dude * *..thats what I think should be in a name


Eric Henning


-- Edited by nomadwilly on Wednesday 2nd of June 2010 05:41:49 PM

Isobel K is the name of the wife of the Gent who built her, in Sydney, BC.

Long story short - the builder was constructing the boat for his son to be used as a workboat in the logging industry (for towing rafts of logs), when the son was killed in a logging accident - this of course took the wind out of the sails to finish the boat and it sat in partial completion for a couple of years.

The boat was then finished off by another gent as a pleasure craft and the name was kept.

When I bought it next, It seemed appropriate to keep the name.

Sedona.

The center of the Hopi universe. We have a Kachina. In the same state as my wife's home town of Phoenix. The first name of the wife*of the first postmaster of Sedona, AZ and easy to remember for bridge tenders and others.

-- Edited by Doc on Wednesday 2nd of June 2010 06:41:18 PM

Datenight

When first married we started Friday datenights. While looking for the boat my perfect wife suggested Datenight as we would be on it every Friday. We are.

Rob
37' sedan

-- Edited by Datenight on Wednesday 2nd of June 2010 06:52:55 PM

Mine's called 'Lotus'. As far as I know it's the original name - fairly self explanatory, not noteworthy in any particular way, and there are probably hundreds out there, tho' I've not seen another when I come to think of it. She has had that name through at least four owners - why would one change it?
Previous boats were a 20 ft yacht which had been repainted and at the time had no name when we bought her. Named her 'Princess Leia', as my boys were mad on Star Wars (and still are - in their thirties), then later found her original owner had named her 'Brillig' (from Alice in Wonderland), and I sorta wished I'd known that, but never mind....
The other was a 26 ft yacht, and the PO was not only the builder of them, and used his own as a sort of advertising show piece thing, (so was beautifully done out & equiped), but he was also a made keen racer. Liked to intimidate his opponents I suspect, as his previous versions were called, 'Intimidator', 'The Wasp', 'Scorpion', and ours was 'Black Widow'....? I kept the name but the SO didn't like it much.....funny that.......? His next boat after ours was called - you guessed it... 'Black Adder'......

Ours is a Halvorsen Gourmet Cruiser, so Beluga caviar came to mind. Very goumet.*Cute sea creatures strike a happy chord with my young children so the Beluga whale (white normally, but looks blue through the filter of artic waters) also seemed appropriate. Hence "Beluga"...

"Retreat" is our, well, you get it.
When we bought her, she was "Greylag". Not being Scandinavian, the name seemed so ...grey. So it had to go. The change certainly hasn't brought any bad luck.

ours is Volunteer.... the previous owner said he named the boat after his first wife.... he said* she volunteered for everything...never had any time for him.. so he left her and built the boat!.I dont really care for the name, but after 8 years I figure why change it now

Willy T

A famous watering hole in the BVI where I always had a good time with good friends.

Tidahapah.
My old man was a POW on the Burma railway during WW 2. He said they were always helped by the local Malays.
Tidahapah (Tidak-apah) was a term they used all the time, meaning doesn't matter, what the!

Dad said if he ever got around to building a decent boat that is what he would call her.

He was gone by the time I built Tidahapah so that is what she is called in memory and respect for a great bloke.

The spelling can be variable as previously noted but I got mine from a book by another famous WW2 person Sister Viv Bullwinkel a survivor of the Banka Beach masacre, where they were forced to walk into the water and then machine gunned, she was the only survivivor.
I had no problem going with her spelling.

Benn

LUCY ,

the name of our now departed Maine Coon cat who was totally agreeable and easy to live with.

Our goal when cruising is "Uneventful", and LUCY was totally predictable and reliable.

Gumbo; It seemed a fitting name for a Louisiana boat, and is easy to spell, I don't usually have a problem getting it across to lock or bridge tenders. I once saw a sailboat named Zubinelgenubi (Arabic name of a star), another was Abradabracadabra, try getting those names across to a New Orleans bridge tender
There are not many Gumbos around, I've only seen one other so far, at Lulu's in Alabama.
The previous name, by owners of Irish descent, was Grania an Irish legendary queen or sea godess just didn't work for me so I changed it with an abbreviated naming ceremony.
Steve W.

The funniest one I saw was XQQQME (Excuse me). I used to hail him just for fun on ch. 16... "Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, this is Anastasia III". Hahaha! Got some funny responses. He named it that because it was a racing cat and that's what he would say when he passed another one. The second most funny was "Passing Gas".

mine is "bye all", the owner before me named it that, he was a canadian guy and would say that everytime he left, he travled alot so it fit. i grew up next to the boat so i left the name. my all time fav is "bowditch" after nathinal bowditch, great maritime meaning with that name.

Old School: she looks like an old fishboat or workboat, I just turned 60 and have no plans to change my ways, so I guess the name fits us both.
Mike
Baton Rouge

One of my favorites that I saw in the ICW was " Nograsstimeax"...obviously a cajun and celebrating his liveaboard lifestyle by not having to mow the grass!!!

Could you legally name a boat "Mayday" (or May Day)?

There was a USCG documented boat on my dock named "Emerge-n-Sea"...I **** you not. So I don't think May Day would be such a stretch.

If you ever want to know if there are boat names out there that you are thinking of.....you can search the USCG books at this website

http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/st1/CoastGuard/VesselByName.html

-- Edited by Baker on Thursday 3rd of June 2010 12:35:11 PM

Yep, there is a "Mayday" in the USCG registry...unbelievable!!

At least here in Canada, "Mayday" or "MaiTai", or anything else that could sound like a distress call are not allowed for federally registered boats. That does not prevent any idiot from naming their boat such, and calling/being called that unofficially.

My dog is called "PanPan" for obvious reasons.

Mike/Comanche,I really really like your boat. Any chance of seeing some nice pictures??


Eric Henning

One of my previous boats was a Predator 35' which was 50kts flat out. Being long, slim, and low in the water, we used a play on the French word for water - eau, and named named the boat L'eau Profile.

Then when we moved to the Fleming, we wanted to keep the wprd 'eau' in the name.

The whole family (6 of us) tried thinking. Now there's a plasticine modelling material children use called Play Doh.

The youngest suddenly said, 'Hey. it's Dad's new toy - it must be called Play d'eau.

There's a yacht in Diver marina called "sing in the wind". On closer examination there's the maths symbol for pi in front of the sing, making the name 'pising in the wind'. Really clever and you've guessed it - the owned is a maths lecturer at the local uni.



-- Edited by Piers on Thursday 3rd of June 2010 11:38:43 PM