Humorous/cute boat names

Why do so many boaters name their vessels to make a joke or otherwise demean their boats? "Got beer" is only one of many.

Obviously they were never taught to respect or love their boat.

It's obviously a highly personal thing. Which means some people will be traditional/conservative in naming their boat, some will be overly intellectual or use arcane literary or historical references, some will be humorous (or attempt to be!), and some will be offensive just to get a reaction.

I figure as long as it makes the boat owner happy...

"Reel abcde" anyone?

We chose our boat name to match both our personalities AND the boat. We decided early on that if we got a more classic boat with style and class, we'd name her with a combination of our grandmother's names. If we got a mass production boat (which we did) we'd name her something less formal yet more personally relevant.

Hence Gopher Broke. Because we're Minnesotans (Gophers) in Wisconsin, and clearly now broke.

I don't really think it's demeaning. But it's not a boat that calls for something more formal.

There are a whole bunch of our life experiences depicted throughout our boat name's design. Much more than I can relate here. Some of the depiction concepts speak for themselves. Suffice it to say that I am not the one with the halo.

I can say that Linda and I together conceived its contents as representative for our years. Then Linda sketched it out. I sent her sketch to the artist that painted the name on our Tolly's transom. He spruced up her artistic rendition and hand painted it on; using automotive pinstriping paints. A great guy. He was early in is 20's. That was the last art he painted before entering the Navy.

Words "The Office" are part of our experienced background, current ground and foreground. Besides being a play on words regarding the joy of boating... whenever we want to not really let a person know where we'll be, we simply say "We're going to The Office! They are none the wiser!

We once listened to a good samaritan vessel helping a vessel without power with the USCG in the middle. It went on for a couple of hours since the tow was long and the speed was slow. Occasionally you could hear laughing in the background at the USCG sector. The name of the good samaritan vessel was the "Dirty Ba$---d".

While cruising in the USVI we came across a small group of liveaboards on very dilapidated boats in Coral Bay, St John. One such boat was named Curmudgeon and true to form as we got close to it another sign on the bows said "stay away". So a name can also be a warning!

My boat name isn't particularly humorous, but it's got good meaning. The boat was previously owned by my grandparents. Their previous boat (wood) was "All Hours" with a dinghy named "Wee Hours". Both came with the names. This boat became "Hour Glass", as in our first fiberglass boat, keeping with the spelling from the previous boat.

When we purchased our Willard 36 round bottomed displacement trawler 20+ years ago, the previous owners explained the name had come from their children.

Unwilling to live with the POs name for hailing Bridge tenders, we promptly changed the name to Weebles which we though appropriate for a rock-solid boat like ours (those of a certain age will remember the play toy jingle "weebles wobble but they don't fall down").

The OPs previous name chosen by their children? Shy Platypus. "Sierra-hotel-yankee....."

Nuff said.

My old Phoenix had a name that I could not wait to use the Easy Off Oven Cleaner. "Mental D Fish & Sea".

When I first moved to the PNW I bought a Cal 34' which I intended to use as our exploration vehicle for the Salish Sea. I had recently read Jonathan Raban's book "A Passage to Juneau" (which I highly recommend). That book chronicled several overlapping voyages, including Capt. Vancouver's unsuccessful voyage in employ of King George III to find a Northwest Passage back to Europe somewhere in Puget Sound. He described sailing up each and every estuary hoping for that elusive (and non-existent) passage and compared it to what he called "Basic Mazecraft" which is that to exit a maze you just keep one hand on the wall. If your hand does not leave the wall you will eventually, and successfully exit the maze. So Basic Mazecraft became the name of that modest Cal 34 - and I had to spend the next 6 years explaining that name to everyone on the pier! So the moral of the story is pick something easier to explain!
~Alan

rslifkin said:

My boat name isn't particularly humorous, but it's got good meaning. The boat was previously owned by my grandparents. Their previous boat (wood) was "All Hours" with a dinghy named "Wee Hours". Both came with the names. This boat became "Hour Glass", as in our first fiberglass boat, keeping with the spelling from the previous boat.

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See, now that's cool!

tpbrady said:

The name of the good samaritan vessel was the "Dirty Ba$---d".

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We knew a guy who named his sailboat "The Filthy Whore". He just loved saying that name on the VHF.

The only time it "bothered" me was when we followed him into Cap Sante Marina as part of a large group. He, of course, proudly hailed them as "sailing vessel Filthy Whore". We immediately called in after him saying "sailing vessel Venus". They asked me to repeat. When in the office checking in they admitted after talking with The Filthy Whore they thought our boat name started with a "P"...

My late husband I bought our first boat together before we were married, so we drew up a partnership agreement that spelled out--among other things--the terms if we parted company...that discussion resulted in the only thing we could possibly name it: MINE TOO.


I named the boat I bought after he died "SOLITAIRE"--a single perfect gem in an appropriate setting...I left it to others to decide whether it referred to the boat or her owner.


Some friends who always towed their dinghy named it MY TENDER BEHIND.


--Peggie

Personally,

I like “Never Again II”.

Vietnam vets here will recognize the irony in our current name, carried over from our sail boat: Didi Mau

My wife and I sing in our church's choir (not right now of course). When we bought our trawler we were searching for a name, and one Wed night at choir practice our director was telling us to sing a bit slower - she said 'don't you see that adagio - it means 'slow movement''. As we were leaving choir practice my wife and I looked at each other - that's it - Adagio it is. I know a few other boats are named that, but it is personal to us.

There is a sailboat in Palm Coast Marina named "Here There Are Dragons."

I have a photo of it somewhere. I would love to know the back story!

menzies said:

There is a sailboat in Palm Coast Marina named "Here There Are Dragons."

I have a photo of it somewhere. I would love to know the back story!

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I would bet it's in reference to the book "There Be No Dragons: How to Cross a Big Ocean in a Small Sailboat", by Ross Palley. I read it about 20 years ago (when I was still a sailor dreaming of the South Pacific), and it was pretty good.

Moonfish said:

I would bet it's in reference to the book "There Be No Dragons: How to Cross a Big Ocean in a Small Sailboat", by Ross Palley. I read it about 20 years ago (when I was still a sailor dreaming of the South Pacific), and it was pretty good.

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Interesting. Now I'll have to find the photo to make sure I remembered it correctly!

markpierce said:

Why do so many boaters name their vessels to make a joke or otherwise demean their boats? "Got beer" is only one of many.

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Got beer?

I don't even know what that is supposed to mean?????

One of the best ones I saw was a boat in the Chesapeake named
"You're Dead a Long Time".

Another was in our marina named "Hell Froze Over"

And "Funkin' Go Nuts" done in a dunkin donuts color theme.

The ones I don't particularly care for are 2 shortened names such as "Ka-Tim" or "Ter-San"

Had a family friend who named his boat after his beautiful wife. Called it Lady Hope and named his dingy Last Hope.

Personally, I think a boat name should be limited to two words, maybe three words, never more than three.

I've seen this one several times in several variations: "She got the House, I got the.." Some people spend more time trying to be cute than trying to be original.

A boat name should be personal, original, concise yet convey the owners personality. I think boat names in the U.S. should be in English unless the latin or French or whatever expression is well known like Semper Fi or Carpe Diem, or Mi Casa.

Some names are soo overdone they are no longer original. Anything with "knot" "office" or
"waves" should be reconsidered.

The new trend seems to be a full transom full color picture of oceans, waves, palm trees, dolphins, etc. Not a big fan, maybe it is just me.

I also see a lot of names referring to alcohol, beer, whisky, drunken ness, hangovers, happy hour, martini glasses, etc. I happen to be a non drinker but I don't think that fact clouds my vision. I just think that if there was ever an incident involving law enforcement or the Coast Guard it might not be looked upon favorably if my boat was named "Drunk Again".

I think I'm turning into a curmudgeon. I never used to be so "salty". Maybe because it is
May 8 and 27 degrees in Northern Wisconsin. It snowed last night and froze all my tomatoes beans, peppers and flowers. I have been to my boat exactly ONE time and froze while I was there. I am not suffering even one little bit because of Covid but plenty of people are , Some in my family are not doing well. Maybe that is why I am so critical today.

Tomorrow will be better, stay kind.

pete

There was a medium-sized older style motoryacht in San Francisco Bay named "The Catch." I think it might have been a Hatt 43 or something - had an old-school wheelhouse over the aft stateroom. I think it was from the late 70's or early 80's, probably one of the last of that style built.

I'm not much of a football fan, but I guess the original owner was a SF 49'er and caught a ball or something, and bought the boat shortly after, at least that's the story I got when I was docked astern of it at Petaluma Yacht Club. It had sold a couple times in the 15-years since she was new, and watching how many people walked up and read the name, I'd guess it really helped sell the boat.

Our first boat was named, "My Heaven" coming from a favorite song we enjoyed in our wedding. The second named boat was named, "Our Heaven." We decided we liked that name so much and reflected the way we feel when aboard and using the boat with our family that we would use it again. The other "Our Heaven" is still up near LaConner. So we can enjoy having the only "Our Heaven" here in Portland.

Our boat name = Waterford
Our last name = Ford
Works for us!

Our tender's name is "Natalie". Usually causes a pause in the conversation.

mvweebles said:

There was a medium-sized older style motoryacht in San Francisco Bay named "The Catch." I think it might have been a Hatt 43 or something - had an old-school wheelhouse over the aft stateroom. I think it was from the late 70's or early 80's, probably one of the last of that style built.

I'm not much of a football fan, but I guess the original owner was a SF 49'er and caught a ball or something, and bought the boat shortly after, at least that's the story I got when I was docked astern of it at Petaluma Yacht Club. It had sold a couple times in the 15-years since she was new, and watching how many people walked up and read the name, I'd guess it really helped sell the boat.

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Montana to Dwight Clark 1981 season NFC Championship game with one minute to go.

Pete Meisinger said:

Personally, I think a boat name should be limited to two words, maybe three words, never more than three.

I've seen this one several times in several variations: "She got the House, I got the.." Some people spend more time trying to be cute than trying to be original.

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I agree. I dislike names that are essentially sentences e.g.
"Us and Our Two Buoys"
Workin' for the Weekend

I also dislike over-used cliche words e.g. anything with:

Nauti
Reel
aqua