Dinghy naming, is it a thing?

[Hyperion]

I can understand the security concerns about dingy names. I have motion activated cameras on my boat and satellite trackers on both the trawler and the dink. If anyone gets on my boat, I will know immediately.

 

[MichaelD]

My boat is named Athena.
The goddess of wisdom, strategic warfare, and a few other things was often depicted with her spirit animal, an owl.
The dinghy is named Bubo, Latin for owl.
I’m thinking that anyone who would make that connection won’t be pirating. But you never know.

 

[Captgary175]

My first dingy

What's the custom for names on dinghys? Are they traditionally left blank? Do they carry the name of the vessel they are associated with? Do they get their own name?

I remember seeing my boat (years before I bought it) with a dinghy on it that had a cute, diminutive version of the bigger boat name. Sadly, by they time I bought the boat, the dinghy had disappeared.

We've been getting by with a cheap inflatable, but I think I'm going to find a nicer glass or plastic dinghy. I kind of like the idea of having the same name as the main boat....

Just idle ruminations

Cheers!

mike

My first ever power boat was an old Thomson lapstrake with a very loud Johnson 60 hp I used for fishing. Coming from a sailing background, I named the boat "Hard of Herring". Of course the dingy had to be "Herring Aid". Other than that I have never named a dingy

 

[Amadeus]

On our last boat, "Amadeus", the dinghy was "Wolfgang."

My wife once sailed on a CT55 "Small World." The dinghy was "After All."

 

[MOJO]

I'm a believer, TT, Tender To, or any name associating a dinghy with a mothership, is broadcasting there is likely no one on the boat.

In the Caribbean many cruisers use a different name for their dinghy for just this reason. Seeing a T/T<Mothership> at a dinghy dock lets the bad guys know there's likely no one on the boat so let's see what we can steal! Likewise, when arranging to meet another cruiser in town, etc., often VHF calls would be made using the dinghy names so bad guys listening in would not know the mothership was going to be vacant.

 

[Patrick4002]

our boat is the Lady Penelope and our dingy is Miss Penelope

 

[kthoennes]

I know that security concern almost always comes up during discussions about naming dinghies, particularly T/T, but that's always seemed kind of impractical to me, for a thief. First, in any given marina or mooring field lots of boats are often empty or unoccupied for long periods. I don't need to scope out dinghies at the town dock to find an empty mothership. Just knock on the hull of a mothership and if somebody answers, act like I'm asking directions or trying to find my friend's boat, etc. Second, even if I do survey dinghy names at say the dinghy dock at a restaurant or town dock, then I have to know where the mother ship is moored if I want to rob it. Third, most -- although not all -- of the marinas I've been in leave boats wide open where gates can easily be climbed around, or I can just approach from the water in my own dinghy, the S.S. Burglary and sail your entire mother ship away. Heck our boat doesn't even have keys, it has ignition switches. We were at a scary marina in Chicago once where I'd want to lock up everything, but that's pretty rare. But my point is that I don't need to see a dinghy name or T/T [Name] at a down dock to steal stuff from a random mothership. In fact, I'll bet most often the far greater risk of theft is when your dinghy is sitting in the davits or moored at your transom, where your small outboard is most likely to get pinched. Even in our home marina where I'm not aware theft has ever occurred, I'm inclined to use a dinghy motor lock just out of general caution because they're so easily stolen. And I know that's a common threat in lots of locations. I've just never thought the security risk of a T/T dinghy name at a town or restaurant dock is very practical as a way of identifying rob-able mother ships.

(That aside though, naming dinghies always seemed a little too cute to me -- but to each his own.)

 

[JYoung]

Honestly? Every yacht deserves a special name, including a dinghy/tender. Don’t succumb to the pressure to make it oblivious. And don’t succumb to putting the name on the bottom. Be a true yachtsman. Step up. Don’t be a nouveau bateau. Be a yachtsman. Name her with pride, dignity, and loyalty to the yacht to which she is attached. Be strong.

 

[ranger58sb]

Yachtsman, huh? And yachts?

We just have a couple boats. The dinghy is one of them.



-Chris

 

[Shrew]

We have unofficially named every dinghy we've owned. Meaning, we refer to it by name, however we never affix the name onto the dinghy properly. We also don't refer to the name to other people. Just to each other. These names were typically parody's

Names Included:

Super Dinghy/Super Dink

Dingus Maximus

Both of these were small 8' 6" roll-up Zodiak's.

Our current dinghy is a 13 Boston Whaler SS, we simply refer to as "The Whaler".

I wouldn't affix a name onto a dinghy incase I might want to sell it down the road. I won't use TT <BoatName> for reasons stated above.

 

[CaptTom]

Dingus Maximus

OK, you've given me the name for my next dinghy:


Biggus Dingus


(Apologies to Monty Python.)

 

[47Rah1980]

Agree with “do whatever you want”. Depending on size and motor, will potentially need registration.

Our big boat is named Plot Twist, the dinghy “Subplot”

 

[Jeff F]

I think it's important to identify the mother ship somewhere on the dinghy, in case of loss. I had one break loose while anchored during a storm - my fault - and only realized it was gone when a helpful local arrived with it in tow.

 

[C lectric]

I won't discount the theft angle but the only time I lost something to theft the dinghy was on the swim grid. It was the O/B the thieves were after along with a whole bunch of other O/Bs courtesy of other folk.

 

[ssteakley]

From Snowflakes to Snowball

Our 4 year old grandson named our Mothership,
Snowball. I agreed to the name since there are no downsides to a snowball, just 100% fun. Later I asked him what we should name the dingy, Snowflake of course!

 

[TF_BG]

Yes, and ours is very P.C.

 

[Alisske]

I'm a believer, TT, Tender To, or any name associating a dinghy with a mothership, is broadcasting there is likely no one on the boat.

Do as you wish, not what everyone else does.

My first thought. I guess it depends on where you cruise. If your a local and keep local in good places, naming a dink can be a fun thing

For me, just leave blank

 

[soin2la]

My first thought. I guess it depends on where you cruise. If your a local and keep local in good places, naming a dink can be a fun thing

A year or two before Covid my best friend with near 40 years BC coastal boating, went out for a weekend, 12nm from home to check out a few new items before a summer of cruising.

There was one other boat in the secluded anchorage, went they went exploring in the dinghy. When they came back, the other boat was gone and so was their BBQ.

No AIS.

 

[gwbullis]

Our big boat is named "Believe a Bull". I wanted to name the dinghy "Li'l Liar". But she would have none of it.
I agree with keeping a low profile on the dinghy name as naming it "TT to the big boat name" is opening up potential bad things to the main boat sitting somewhere else by itself.

 

[Hippocampus]

I'm a believer, TT, Tender To, or any name associating a dinghy with a mothership, is broadcasting there is likely no one on the boat.

Do as you wish, not what everyone else does.

This is true. Would never ever name a dinghy with TT or any name that could even remotely be associated with the mothership. We went as far as to remove all the state identifiers knowing we’d be out of the home country so it wouldn’t match the country of documentation on the stern of the mothership.

Apparently it’s common for thieves to have spotters. They watch the boats in the anchorages. See a boat with no dinghy it becomes a target. Name no name doesn’t mater then. But its less work and safer to watch the dinghy dock. Then they can go straight to the boat they want to break into.

For a mega yacht it’s a non issue. There’s always someone on board. For us as mom and pop think it does.

 

[AlanT]

TT to....., or Individual name?

I won't forget the day that a crew member from Maltese Falcon stopped by to pick up my daughter. His tender had both the Mothership name as well as the tender name on it. I doubt that they were too worried about people thinking with the tender ashore the boat would be easily burgled!
~A

 

[Hippocampus]

Went to St. Barts and anchored off a beautiful empty beach. Took the dinghy in with a cooler for lunch and our snorkel kit. A flotilla of dinghies came in about an 1/2 h later. All with prominent boat name followed by a Roman numeral. One with a large tent, another chairs, another a grill, another coolers and silverware/place settings, another with water toys. Finally about an hour later two more dinghies with big nasty men (?security?) and a large center console. The owners party was transferred to dinghies and brought ashore. Never saw the mothership but it was obvious the dinghies were all named and numbered to facilitate communications between each other as well as the mothership. Dinghies would unload then return later so not sure how many total.

 

[High Wire]

Ours is Leprechaun but we never put it in lettering. Is our private joke.