Naming a B-17 Northstar Canoe

[Chip]

I bought a new canoe: a Northstar B-17. I've paddled it a few times now and I like it, it's a keeper! But, really, that name?

I've always called my canoes by their model name. The Wenonah Rendezvous is "the Rendezvous", the Old Town Appalachain is "the Appy," and so forth. But b-17 is no name for a canoe.

The first thing that comes to mind when I hear B-17, is Flying Fortress, since the B-17 was a WWII mainstay of the Army Air Corps. But I don't like Flying Fortress for a canoe name. I do think it would be cool to have the name tie into to the legendary aircraft, so I've been looking through names chosen by air men for their bombers. I found a list online. There were a lot of B-17s and hence, a lot of names, over 12,000. I'd like to honor the tradition of naming vessels after females, so that knocks out many names. No "Hitler's Headache," "Roosevelt's Revenge" or "arse Bandits." For some reason, I gravitate toward names starting with B, maybe because that will alliterate with B-17 and the hull's color, black.

I'm in between on "Bebe" and "Bessie", with Bessie also having a variant "Bashful Bessie." While it's not a paddling objective, every canoe I've owned has eventually bashed something, though I could always hope for better with a new boat.

Have any thoughts on naming a B-17 canoe?

 

[Boatman53]

You could pay homage to the B-17 Flying Fortress and use something like ‘Memphis Belle’, ‘King Bee’, ‘Sentimental Journey’ there are more but you get the idea.
Jim

 

[stripperguy]

Let the name evolve naturally
It will name itself when it’s ready
A friend of mine build a too heavy cedar strip comp cruiser. After a few trips it became affectionately known as “The Warhammer”

 

[Alasgun]

The words Awful and Awesome‘s relationship to each other come to mind when i see “Bashful Bessie”. Looking at Bashful Bessie with those eyes i can see her in a different light.
Agreeing with @stripperguy that a name will come to you when you least expect it. One day at work a customer was commenting on something i’d built for them, telling me it worked well. My smart alic reply was yea “Huda Thunkit”; which later became the name of the C-dory we spent over 15 years on!

 

[ppine]

Only you can name your canoe.
I paddled an OT Guide 18 for 30 years. First she was the No Name, then Emma Dean after JW Powell's boat.

Then a friend Dave called and wanted to go on a canoe trip in Oregon. We ended up with 8 people for a week but Dave backed out. . On the last day we called Dave around dinner time who was living out of state. We gave him a hard time. After the call, I took a Sharpie and wrote "Dave's Not Here" amidships. That has been the name ever since.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

After the call, I took a Sharpie and wrote "Dave's Not Here" amidships. That has been the name ever since.

Is that a reference to Cheech and Chong?

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

When I picked up my Hawaiian outrigger canoe from Huki Outriggers & Surfskis in Sacramento, California, after driving from Connecticut, the owner, Huki Jude, told me it was a Hawaiian tradition to name your canoe before its first voyage. The model name was V1-B, so that wasn't going to cut it.

Because my first goal was to paddle on Lake Tahoe, and because I had had batik fabric laminated into the hull and ama, and because I was thinking of Thor Heyerdahl's adventures of exploration on his Kon-Tiki raft, I named my va'a Tahoe Batiki.



None of this helps name your B-17, Chip, but WWII was begun for the USA in Hawaii.

 

[ppine]

Lake Tahoe can be a nasty lake to paddle.
I first paddled my Pygmy Coho built at home at the Wooden Boat Show at Garwood's.
I had a sailboat moored there in summer for 6 years in Tahoe Keys. The lake is big, cold, deep and has no place to hide except the Keys.

 

[Ralph]

I tend to agree that it will name itself but, nevertheless, I will suggest something with Bomber... perhaps Bomber Babe, Bomber Bessie or, for a change Bessie the Bomber - anyway, you get the idea.

 

[Odyssey]

It's a shame Northwind stuck a label on the prow, otherwise your options would've been wide open. However...
You could add to the 17 to make a memorable year, such as 1776? B might signify the illustrious gentleman Benjamin Franklin.
B1776. Or The Benny for short?

Benjamin Franklin ‑ Biography, Inventions & Facts | HISTORY

Benjamin Franklin (1706‑1790) was a statesman, author, publisher, scientist, inventor, diplomat, a Founding Father and a leading figure of early American history.

www.history.com

 

[billconner]

call it the Ali for float like a butterfly sting like a bee.

 

[Will Derness]

How about Sweet Carambola? That is the B17 variety of star fruit.

 

[Trippy D]

We named our B-19 "Himmarshee". Its Indian, meaning "new river". Its significant to my wife and I growing up along the banks of the new river in Ft. Lauderdale.

Legend has that the Seminole woke one morning to an earthquake and flood, creating at "new river", to which they named the body of water.

 

[ppine]

Bertha. Mostly I name boats after the titles of Grateful Dead songs. My drift boat is the "Dire Wolf."

 

[Alan Gage]

'The bomber'

 

[Pseudonym]

Bashful Bessie sounds pretty good to me.

I bought my Old Town Tripper from a gentlemen in Greenwich, CT. On the drive back home, we stopped for pizza at Frank Pepe's in New Haven, which is well regarded as some of the best pizza around. The boat has been called Pepe ever since.