Why do you call your boat...

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BelleSerene

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There are some interesting boat names on the water. It's show & tell time.

To kick off, Belle Serene is named after our daughters, Annabel and Serena.

So why do you call your boat...?
 
Shifta is a word from East Africa meaning a bandit, which I first came across in a book by Dervla Murphy. Having had a couple of wonderful trips to Ethiopia we thought it would be nice to have a local name, and a little joke against ourselves.
 
Kioni is of course named after the village in the Ionian, we had a fantastic Sunsail bareboat holiday in the early 90's there which kicked off our whole cruising obsession - plus its very VHF friendly and cheap to put on yer dodgers

Saguday is an Ilokano name, from the northern Philippines where SWMBO is from, with two meanings: in some local stories he's the "god of the wind" which seemed apt for a sailboat if a bit presumptuous but it also means "perfect gift" which nicely described the opportunity we had to take off liveaboard for a while
 
Our boat was built in New Zealand and came with her name

Hinewai (pronounced hee-neh-wai - NOT hine-way)

It's a Maori name – we were told Hine means "Maiden" or "Daughter", wai means "water" - so to us she's the "Daughter of the water" – the avatar’s our boat logo.

There’s also a lovely fable about how Hinewai helped her sister Hinekohu (Daughter of the Mist) by keeping an eye out while sis did a bit of horizontal jogging with a bloke called Uenuku. Unfortunately, one day, they were so into it, they didn’t hear Hinewai warning that dawn was coming and got sprung by his village. Hinekohu had a hissy fit and he never saw her again. After years of loneliness, he eventually died and, impressed by his enduring love, the Gods turned him into a rainbow.

So if you see Hinekohu in sunlight, there will always be a rainbow so that Uenuku can be close to the one he loved.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!
 
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The name of the boat is "CAPTAIN FANTASTIC" because my 8 year old boy named it. I now have to leave up to this name!!! so when i get things wrong now and again, people look at me then look at the name of the yacht then they look at me and smile....:p
 
Paragon 2 and Tula

Ok, Paragon is easy to explain. I was passed the boat by my Dad, who was passed it by his dad, who had it built for him in the 1930s and named her after his dad's old boat.

My other boat is Tula, a zulu word for hush. When I bought the boat she had a gaelic name, which was unpronouncable and meant sanctuary, so I reckon it is a reasonable re-naming. Why Tula? Well our first sail in her was at Glenridding sailing centre. The South African guy running the centre had two brand new puppies, called Dave and Tula. My daughters liked the dogs. I thought Dave would not be a good name for a boat, so Tula she is.

R
 
Marmalade 'cos we (the family) all love marmalade and I insisted on a name that would work on VHF - ie not elicit "you what" or "station calling - please spell your name"
 
RobbieW said:
Ok, Paragon is easy to explain. I was passed the boat by my Dad, who was passed it by his dad, who had it built for him in the 1930s and named her after his dad's old boat.

My other boat is Tula, a zulu word for hush. When I bought the boat she had a gaelic name, which was unpronouncable and meant sanctuary, so I reckon it is a reasonable re-naming. Why Tula? Well our first sail in her was at Glenridding sailing centre. The South African guy running the centre had two brand new puppies, called Dave and Tula. My daughters liked the dogs. I thought Dave would not be a good name for a boat, so Tula she is.

R
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Funny you say that, a friend of mine has named his boat 'Dave'
Quite amusing asking for a radio check!
 
I've always thought that dinghy sailors come up with better boat names that big boat owners. A few that spring to mind:
White Knuckle Express (the first successful foiling Moth)
Whistling Gorilla (no idea!)
Just For Ffun (Flying Fifteen, and a zillion other FF's have ff in their name too)
Got the Sheets (needs no explanantion!)

Our own Laser 4000 down in Spain is called Poco Loco (because you have to be), but I've always fancied having a RS700 and naming in Slippery When Wet.

Now that I'm old and relatively sensible, I'm buying a big boat. If we like the existing name, we´ll keep it. If not we'll change it, but I have no idea to what.
 
'Fiftyfifty' as SHE was jointly owned with a friend and referred to a s that because nobody could agree on a name.

Son, pointed out that the name could be spelt '5050' or 'soso'.

I wanted to call her 'Kate' as there only 4 letters to paint on, but that name has now been taken.

Still have not painted the name on the boat. :(
 
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Rum_Pirate said:
'Fiftyfifty' as it was jointly owned with a friend and referred to a s that because nobody could agree on a name.

Son, pointed out that it could be spelt '5050' or 'soso'.

I wanted to call it 'Kate' as there only 4 letters to paint on, but that name has now been taken.

Still have not painted the name on it. :(
Click to expand...

"IT":eek:
She surely;), tut tut

unless u dont luv her of course, just a "Chattle":rolleyes:
 
Border Maid was named by her first owner who was a keen fly-fisher. His favourite spot was the 'Border Maid' pool in the Tweed a little below Coldstream so he gave his new yacht the name in 1948. There was also a schooner registered in Aberdeen with the same name and known to have been used by Anglican missionaries in Melanesia in the 1850s; whether the name of the ship and the name of the salmon pool are connected (seems likely) and what such a connection might be I haven't yet discovered.

I think once a boat has had the same name through several changes of ownership it would be a bit cheeky to change it.
 
Ceòl Na Mara

Ceòl Na Mara is Gaelic and means Music of the Sea.
I saw the name on a house near the head of Loch Torridon long ago, and I immediately liked the sound of it. The view from the house was breathtaking, which contributed to the feeling.
Sailing the boat to the origin of its name is still an unfulfilled ambition, but we're working on it.
 
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