Boat Names

[Anne-B]

Thought it might be interesting to start a thread about how you came up with the name on your boat.
Ours was easy, name it after your wife. I have seen that many times, but there are a lot of amusing names out there.
At the eastern shore gathering we noticed quite a variety.
Several of the girls thought it would be fun to find out how the names came about.


Anne Baxter

[Alyssa Jean]

Youngest daughters name is Leigh. Oldest granddaughters name is Anna Leigh. Now I have a second granddaughter so I guess the dingy (ordering it tomorrow) will be Alyssa Jean.

[rogerbum]

SeaDNA is a play on cDNA which stands for copy or complimentary DNA. cDNA is a type of DNA that is made in the lab from RNA. Since many C-Dory's start their name with "C", I had to be different and use "Sea". Also, I would like to think that the "Sea is in my DNA" now that I have a nice boat on which to visit it.

Geek/Nerd speak to follow:
In nature, RNA is usually made from DNA and is an intermediate between the genes (on the DNA) and the protein form of the genes. That is DNA is copied into RNA and RNA is translated into protiens (which do all the chemistry in the cell). Essentially, all cells contain the same DNA but different types of cells "turn on" different genes. One way of controlling which genes are on is to make (or not make) the RNA from a given gene. Hence, it you want to know what genes are turned on and off in a given type of cell, it is useful to measure which RNA's are being made.

RNA is inherently unstable and rapidly degrades (like a Bayliner) where as DNA is stable and lasts a very long time (like a C-Dory). A special type of virus (called a retro virus) exists as RNA and makes an enzyme called "reverse transcriptase" that converts RNA to DNA. We use this enzyme to make cDNA from RNA to create a stable sample that we can query to discover which genes are turned on and off in which kind of cells.

So that's the story of SeaDNA....

Roger on the SeaDNA

[Little Catelyn]

Funny you should ask about boat names, as I am about ready to order lettering from Speedy Signs --- just had them send some color samples.

Now, about that name. My mother always liked her middle name and wished she had had that for her first name instead. My sister always had a name she would have preferred also. And Lynn always wished she had been named Catelyn. One day I called her 'Little Catelyn' and I haven't heard the end of it since; now it's, "Honey, call me Little Catelyn." A few weeks after I ordered the boat she asked what I thought I would name her, and I immediately replied, "Little Catelyn." She had a huge smile on her face, so 'Little Catelyn' it is. Besides, what could I do about it now?

The only problem I have is that nobody can agree on the spelling.

Any thoughts on using both outline AND shadow effects with boat lettering? Too much?

Corwin

[Aiviq]

A lot of people have a hard time with Aiviq, because it's not an English word. First, it's spelled AIVIQ. Lots of people try to put an L in there, or end it with a G. I suppose it could be hard to pronounce, too. It's pronounced like A Vick. In fact, when I first heard the word, I thought it was spelled with a K at the end like Avik, but I looked it up in an Inupiaq dictionary and found the right spelling.

I used to live in Kotzebue Alaska many many years ago, which is an Inupiat (Eskimo) town in Northwestern Alaska. I was a nurse at the Indian health Service hospital there, and since English is a second language to most Inupiats, I picked up a few words of the local language. Most of them were medical in nature, but I didn't really want to name my boat something like Nuviq (mucous). Fortunately, I picked up some non-medical words, too. I discovered the Inupiaq word for walrus when I hit (a dead) one while landing my plane on a beach north of Kotzebue. It's Aiviq, of course. I thought it was a cool name for a boat, and filed it away for future use. I know it confuses people, but I like it.

Jim

[Sea Wolf]

Sea Wolf, of course, comes from Jack London's novel and is named in honor of him. While living in the San Francisco Bay Area for 38 years, I became familiar with his personal history in Oakland, Sonoma County, and of course, on the road in Alaska.

His writings are from an earlier, simpler time, and about man's struggle with nature and the inevitable outcomes. Sea Wolf was and is a fitting name for a boat that teaches a man humility. Joe.

[russoboat]

Porgy-Man comes from the fish I love to catch, a Porgy is same as scup or spot in the south. I love to fish and since most the time I bring in between 20-50 of these fish what else.

I did ask my family to give me names:
wife - For Sale
daughter - Papa Bear
Son - Low Tide II (wife name the first boat said that
everything that washed on shore my
family eat)

Other members of family also gave me names but this is a family site so I won't print them.

[Captains Cat]

My wife is actually responsible for our name, in picking it, we pondered long and hard. She finally said "Well, you were a Capitan in the navy and you're the Captain of this C-Dory (she's the Admiral) so it's your choice.

Thus, "CAPTAIN'S CHOICE".

Charlie

[Sneaks]

Charlie, like most of us I have an Admiral too, but she comes from a commercial fishing family and already had two boats named after her. The "Mary B" and the "Mary Ann". The former, a commercial longliner, the latter a recreational boat.

The "Jenny B" is named after my mother, who is the reason behind our shift from RV'ing back to boating. Yup, she's still around to appreciate it - closing in on 90 this year.

Mary and Don

[Levity]

Levity was chosen as our C-Dory name as we wanted to endow the boat with the concept of lighthearted fun. We found a definition of levity which included the descriptors; "buoyancy in speech or manner". We felt this was a good match to our concepts and liked the flexibility of buoyancy to cover the ideal and the physical aspects of boating.
Mike 'Levity'

[starcrafttom]

After kicking around about a hundred names we came back to the "Susan E" for my wife. My idea, not hers. E is her last and middle initial. I wish her middle name was "Marie" but her father named her "Eugenia" not a good boat name. My family had a 27ft Chris craft on the Chesapeake Bay in the 70s called the Nora k after my mom. So this being the first boat big enough to name I wanted to continue the tradition. We had that boat on the last marina on the middle river in Essex. I was wandering if it is still there. I can’t remember the name of the marina.

[Not For Hire]

The story that Mark Twain once told of wanting to earn enough money so that he would no longer need to work. Not that he would not work, he just did not want to “need” to work. He would buy a riverboat and pilot the boat up and down the Mississippi river. He would call the riverboat the "Not For Hire" to let everyone who travelled on her know that he was doing this out of enjoyment and not because it was (just) a job.

Sam Clemens and a fictional riverboat called “Not For Hire” were also featured characters (the stars in my opinion) in the “Riverworld” series of science fiction novels by Phillip Jose Farmer. Great reads but maybe the later books don’t live up to the first.

I'm still workin', but not when I'm on board!

[Chuckpacific]

We bought our CD-22 at Sportcraft in Oregon City with no name in mind. Our first cruise was to downtown Portland. Tied up at one of the grain terminals was a 500 footer named "Steve" with Panamanian registry. We laughed about the name but then realized that our C-Dory would always have a huge "tude" so decided it needed a huge name just like the big boys.

[416rigby]

Donna's ancestors came from Ireland and mine from Scotland. We are heavily into traditional Celtic music. "Foggy Dew" is one of our favorite Irish songs. It tells the story of the Easter uprising. It's just a great song and we kept returning to it when thinking of a name. Now we just have to get that CD.

[Knotty C]

We went through a lot of names trying to decide on one that fit our boat. Names that were high on the list are Freedom's Dream, Current C, C Breeze and Yacht C.

Don's Dad was a Chief Bosun's Mate in the Coast Guard during WWII and he specialized in tying knots. We are both in Search & Rescue and also tie knots in our ropes rescues so one day when Don was practicing tying a knot, he came up with the name Knotty C.

In an effort to make sure our name would be well received, I did market analysis by having the students in the college class I teach vote on the two names Yacht C and Knotty C and also tell me what it made them think of. One of the answers I got from the students was "It makes me think some old WWII veteran is going to run me over in his fishing boat." And that was before I told them ANYTHING about our boat or the reasons for the names. We both got a kick out of that.

Before telling them the results, I showed them a picture of the boat and they instantly knew that the name we picked was Knotty C.

Corwin, our letters are on their way at this moment. We went with both black outline AND shadow on gold letters. I hope they look good.