Anyone Named their boat(s)

[Rippy]

Funny that I never considered naming my canoes, as I name my vehicles. My last motorcycle was Bucky The Thunder Horse, may he rest in peace. Unfortunately I was riding him when he went to the last round up. I guess my Nova Crafts already came with names, Bob and Pal.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I had a custom made Hawaian outrigger canoe built for me in 2004 by Huki in Sacramento, California. I drove 10,000 miles round trip from Connecticut to pick it up, paddling all over the USA and Canada on the way back. One of the custom features was a multi-color, golden threaded batik pattern fabric I had Huki embed in the laminate of the hull and ama, and also made by a seamstress into hatch bags that would show through the clear Beckson hatches.



When I picked up the canoe, the owner of Huki (Huki Jude) told me it was traditional in Hawaii to name your canoe. So, because I wanted to paddle the canoe first in Lake Tahoe, and because of the inlaid batik cloth, and because I had in mind Thor Heyerdahl's exploratory raft Kon-Tiki, I named my outrigger Tahoe Batiki.

 

[dcloots]

I kept it simple. My Gil Gilpatrick cedar stripper is named after my oldest daughters first and middle name "Bela Cristina" and the Chestnut Chum has been named after my middle child / youngest daughters first and middle name "Olivia Carolina". Like I said pretty simple but meaningful. I hold no objections to acquiring more canoes so that they too can be named after my wife and son.

 

[ppine]

My Ford diesel was called "Nelliebelle for 20 years. The new owner decided to keep the name. From the Roy Rogers show, Pat Brady's jeep had the same name.

 

[UCanoe_2]

I named a previous canoe "Pinato," so one of my current ones should become "Pinato II."

Why? In 1689 my great x 7 grandfather was a witness in a land dispute case in the Accomack County, VA court. He testified that, along with several other English colonists and "an Indian named Pinato," he "went over to Gingoteague [Chincoteague] Island to seatt it [claim the land]." My ancestor built what surely was the first white person's house on the island, and helped plant corn and fruit trees. He must have been an indentured servant, as he testified about his "master," who unfortunately lost the case.

My O'Day Daysailer was "Ella A." She was named after my great-grandmother, who lived in an apartment above the general store on the steamboat wharf in a small town on Chesapeake Bay.

 

[MyKneesHurt]

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[Keeled Over]

My kids had generously bestowed the name "Stinky Old Truck" on my '87 Chevy s-10. Something about old spawn sac's. I'd still be driving it except for the required annual inspection.

After the replacement Dakota reached about 125k miles they tried to transfer the old name to the new truck. Never stuck.

 

[tomo]

I had a dagger venture named Edventure after Edward Abbey.

 

[MichaelMerry]

My first canoe, acquired when I was 17, was a 13’ aluminum boat some previous owner had painted yellow. It developed a deserved reputation for instability; particularly when loaded with two young men (who may have been a bit overloaded themselves) and a cooler also loaded with various beverages. A friend assigned it the unoriginal, yet apropos moniker “yellow submarine.” I can’t find a photo!

 

[Benson Gray]

A recent question in the Wooden Boat forum about naming or christening a boat reminded me of the following suggestions that were published in the rec.boats.building news group a long time ago by Marlon MacAllister (Merlin Aleister), a self described Majician and Foole. It was reproduced on the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association web site at one time. This seemed like a good time and place to bring it back.

The Indian ritual has a good ring to it... and... I believe that you already know enough to devise a good ritual that has personal resonance. Presuming you are a "theist" of some type:

Step 1. Select god/goddess
("god"/"God"/or "Godzilla" it's the same thing)

Since you are asking for a "'christ'-ening" you may be presuming that Christ is there. Unless the Haida Indians are Christian, they probably do not do a Christ-ening....

• Choice "A": "our" Christian Lord God Jehovah is a bit remote for this purpose...but, Jesus hung out with fisherman, and I'm sure he could have whipped out a solid populist boat blessing; Make up a "Cool Jesus" (rather than Church Jesus) prayer..."His" Jamaican counterpart JAH could do it (Bob Marley, "Legends" playing in the background... maybe a live reggae band... "jerk" chicken, Red Stripe Beer.) You might look at some of the Holy Mother votive candles, Virgin de Cobre is the Patron Saint of Sailors...
• Choice "B": Oxun (o-shoon') a righteous African-Caribbean Goddess (sensual, erotic) of rivers, creeks, brooks, springs and lakes; I see... everybody wears white... a night time ritual... candles and melodious percussion music... check with your local Shaman for appropriate offerings. (Don't forget to begin and end with a prayer to Ellegba, the keeper of crossroads/waters to open a path and remove all obstacles...) Votive Candles, Candela de Oraciones, (available at grocery stores... Nino de Atoccha (Ellegba) or Los Sietes Potencias de Africanas
• Choice "C": Indigenous deity, (ask your local shaman). Align with this God/dess's personal attributes appropriate to your task, appropriate offerings...

Step 2: Invoke Deity(ies)

Respectfully ask the deity to bless your ritual, just talk to them... (agnostics can address the divine human archetype within all humanity or other suitable symbolic/imagistic/psychospeak) [Your vessel should be prepared for the ceremony! According to many cultures an eye, or eyes, have been painted on so that the boat may see (check out some Phoenician or Greek ships). This particular vessel will be the vehicle of your consciousness, so... how do you want to proceed in the spirit water world? You may want to use colored chalk to inscribe many "bon voyage"/mystic symbols... maybe one from each member of your family, or the primary users of the vessel.]

Step 3: Invoke the elements/directions

As many as you want... fire, earth, air and water are traditional. Is your boat wood? Wood! You may want to anoint the boat with these elements... (watch that fire!) A salt water boat? Salt! Just sprinkle some around... Are you hoping to travel to a special place? Ask the winds of the appropriate direction to aid your venture... Burning Sage is always good for purification! Now...very slowly, as though you were taking a child for her first swim, ease your boat into the water, splash it gently all over, marvel at her initial awkwardness... hold a vision of life for your boat... maybe go for a ride!

Step 4: Say Thank You

Thank the deity; Close the ceremony, start the party...NOTE: Your friends (and you) will (probably) fall into three categories:

1. "I'm into it"
2. "Can't hurt, could help, show some respect"
3. "Jokers".

The first two types will be wonderful. The jokers can be disruptive to your "gestalt". You could just not invite them, but you would miss the jokes... so, if you can get the lead joker - you know the one - and give him space and time to ridicule, make jokes, name call, etc., then you have all the bases covered (the Devine Fool will have his way, anyway). Basically, the more people participate, the higher the energy will be! This is the stuff that traditions are made of! Your children's children will remember!

 

[Chip]

The 20’, glassed, cedar plank, Maine freighter I rehabbed got named “Wontonna,” because it could, almost literally, haul a ton of gear.

The Northstar B-17 is named “Bessie.” Other canoes have just been called by their model names. The OT Tripper is just the Tripper. The OT Appalachian is called the Appy, and so forth. But I’m not fond of B-17 as a name, so she is renamed Bessie. As I explained in an earlier thread, I wanted to reprise a name from among the 12,000+ B17 Flying Fortresses of WWII, which were usually named by their crews.

Now I’d like to know where to paint the name. Power boat names go on the transom, obviously not an option. Does the name go on the bow with the Northstar logo, or the stern, which currently sports the B-17 model name in a diminutive block font? B17 names were usually painted just behind the nose of the aircraft.

 

[Woodpuppy]

I’d probably go port side about a foot or two aft of the logo. The B17 doesn’t have shouldered tumblehome so you’ve got lots of real estate there. Will you include any nose art?

 

[Paddlinhal]

The only boat I ever named was the Handbasket. An old bone-white royalex Explorer. That thing took me through Hell and back. I gave it away to a friend's kid and it still plies the waterways of the Maine interior.

 

[memaquay]

I had a 16 6 Old Town Disco which I always called "The Pig".

 

[Chip]

I’d probably go port side about a foot or two aft of the logo. The B17 doesn’t have shouldered tumblehome so you’ve got lots of real estate there. Will you include any nose art?

I wish I could find more than the name and serial number for the plane named Bessie. I’d love to replicate the nose art, but lacking photos, I would have to settle for something generic. Painting a bathing-suit clad woman on the nose was a classic in nose art, but I probably won’t attempt that. Im lazy and my art skills are poor.

 

[Woodpuppy]

Pacific Wrecks - B-17H "Bulgin Bessie" Serial Number 43-39265

Converted to B-17H Flying Fortress for use in the air-sea rescue role with a Higgins A-1 lifeboat attached to the lower fuselage, ultimate fate unknown, likely scrapped.

pacificwrecks.com

This one? There is another listed on that site with a non-PC name, but I maybe wouldn’t name my canoe after a B17 at rest on the bottom of the Pacific!

 

[sweeper]

Not on the bottom.
"Ultimate fate unknown, likely scrapped or otherwise disappeared."

 

[Woodpuppy]

Not on the bottom.
"Ultimate fate unknown, likely scrapped or otherwise disappeared."

I was referring to the other Bessie the basher listed on that website:

Pacific Wrecks - B-17E "Bessie The Jap Basher" Serial Number 41-2420

On September 24, 1942 took off from Henderson Field piloted by 1st Lt Charles E. Norton returning ditched Domo Cove on Guadalcanal with the entire crew MIA.

pacificwrecks.com

 

[pblanc]

I guess I have named a couple. This Esquif Mistral was basically in an unusable condition with a completely rotted balsa wood core bottom. It required a complete rebuild with removal of the inner layer of Twintex covering the rotted wood, removal of the core, then replacement of the bottom core with Coremat, followed by an inner layer of carbon fiber fabric. I named it "The Phoenix" having pretty much returned from the dead.




The white boat below is a Millbrook MJM built by John Berry himself. The hull really is twisted a little bit. When I put it up on a rack one gunwale is always about 1/4" above the rail.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

The white boat below is a Millbrook MJM built by John Berry himself.

Pete, I don't recall Berry making white canoes. Was it white when you got it or did you paint it? Looks nice.