I’m suffering from a severe case of solid-water-itis. Doc says it will not clear till spring, I understand it is going around. For many of us, paddling has stopped and building has slowed, thought it might be fun to share stories of how we came up with the names for our mistresses…
My first boat, a Muskoka Seaflea (yes, the dreaded spread-boat) I named “Kidd”.I was thirteen at the time and my older brother referred to as me “the kid”, I added the extra “d” since my initials are “DD”
Fast forward 30 years: My next and current project, a 17’ skin on frame Kayak, I named “Kia Ora”.I wanted something that would reflect my New Zealand heritage and one day before construction even started, I was helping my wife with the dishes.I was drying and looked at the tea towel.It was from New Zealand and had the traditional Haka, a Maori war dance that the All Blacks do before each game.There in the translation was “T’is life” – Kia Ora
My Wife’s boat, a Chesapeake 18 will be “Aquarius”, because she is… and it is a water sign.
Please respond with your stories of how you came up with the name of your boat.
I love stories like this. Naming a boat is a grave responsibility. You ponder and ponder and then one day it just comes to you. About two years ago my wonderful wife decided to come out of retirement and go to work as a flight attendant for United Airlines. My big challenge was to figure out how to spend so much time without my best friend. She, in a moment of fantastic inspiration said: "why don't you build a boat"? Six months later I launched my MC 16.5 proudly named "FRIENDLY SKIES". Now as I get started on my Shearwater Hybrid I am again faced with the big challenge.
After returning from Alaska and seeing whales I finished my first yak an Expedition Single which ended up being 6 inches longer than it was suppose to be. At 19' 6" it is a whale of a boat, Hence my Whale
My second yak is a Guillemot L which I hope to ride for a long time on the seas Watch my blog to see my "Seahorse" getting built
My Dad was a marine surveyor here in Ontario and he had a great love for wooden boats that he passed on to my brother and I. Here’s our first boat, "Chicken of the Sea". She was homebuilt in the late 40’s in Florida for use in the Gulf of Mexico. She was about 22’ long and had a single inboard WWII surplus Willys Jeep engine. It was pretty much junk when Dad found it - it had maple trees growing in the bilge from the dry-rot. He and Mom brought her back to life and she was the jewel of Lake St. Clair. During her re-launch in 1968, she had not swelled enough in the hoist slings before she was set loose. She partially sank. Upon re re-floating she was christened "Chicken of the Sea". We enjoyed restoring several other classics over the years. That’s me on the fore deck without the captain’s hat (but with the toothpick legs!). I’m wearing my Apollo 11 shirt in July 1969. I now paddle my kayaks near where this pic was taken. I learned to fish, swim as well as how to properly throw-up over the side. I still suffer from sea sickness.
Twenty-plus years ago, I started to make a list of things I wanted to do during my lifetime (way before The Bucket List). Number nine was to build a boat, and number ten was to learn to sail. Here is my Jimmy Skiff, Life Goal #9...
I have a Wood Duck 12 that my father in law was gracious enough to build for me. I have always loved wooden boats, and was very intimidated by the whole construction process. It was a truly rewarding experience watch flat sheets of plywood turn into a work of art.
I named her "Gratitude" in part for the thanks I have for his hard work and dedication towards the project, but also the thanks for life's little things that we sometimes take for granted - family, health, environment, good friends, etc. I could go on and on but viewing the world from a kayak quickly puts things in perspective.
Donaldson's nominated for this year's Academy Award for "Post Most Inspiring of Inspiring Posts". Thx, DD.
My best friend at college, who hung out with me and me girlfriend (and future Boatwife), said that his Brooklyn Jewish Mother called her a "shiksa". And me a "goy". The mom didn't approve of either of us, felt the friendship would distract him from becoming "a Doctah!" (it didn't) but we were flattered to learn what our ethnic identity was after years of thinking we had none, and we loved these Yiddish words, ethnic slur or no.
So, my c. 1973 Sunflower sailboat was named "Shiksa". We sailed it in the Bay (Intracoastal WW) when we "went down' the Shore" as Philadelphians call Avalon, Stone Harbor, etc.
On a beam reach, Shiksa could zoom along at zero knots Speed-Over-Ground when the tide was running, and even more when it was not. My other Shiksa gave me 5 wonderful kids and a few years ago bought me a CLC boat kit as a Christmas present. Pretty good, eh? Every once in a while I get out the manual and ring up John H. to ask him how to undo the last mistake, but I don't know that the eponymous Sharpie will ever swim. But the kit is fun, and it has now given me a chance to use the word "eponymous", so life is good.
Donaldson's nominated for this year's Academy Award for "Post Most Inspiring of Inspiring Posts". Thx, DD.
My best friend at college, who hung out with me and me girlfriend (and future Boatwife), said that his Brooklyn Jewish Mother called her a "shiksa". And me a "goy". The mom didn't approve of either of us, felt the friendship would distract him from becoming "a Doctah!" (it didn't) but we were flattered to learn what our ethnic identity was after years of thinking we had none, and we loved these Yiddish words, ethnic slur or no.
So, my c. 1973 Sunflower sailboat was named "Shiksa". We sailed it in the Bay (Intracoastal WW) when we "went down' the Shore" as Philadelphians call Avalon, Stone Harbor, etc.
On a beam reach, Shiksa could zoom along at zero knots Speed-Over-Ground when the tide was running, and even more when it was not. My other Shiksa gave me 5 wonderful kids and a few years ago bought me a CLC boat kit as a Christmas present. Pretty good, eh? Every once in a while I get out the manual and ring up John H. to ask him how to undo the last mistake, but I don't know that the eponymous Sharpie will ever swim. But the kit is fun, and it has now given me a chance to use the word "eponymous", so life is good.
My father, who is Japanese-American, had a bright yellow fiberglass sailboat of about 25 feet back in the 1970s, can't remember the model now, but it became affectionately know as the "Yellow Peril". Around 1980 he aquired a Pearson 35 (which he still has) that had been named by the previous owner "Desiderata". When he built a stitch-and-glue sailing dinghy in the early 1980s for use with Desiderata, we decided the dinghy should be known as "Errata" really that should be "Erata" to be recursively erroneous. Still has the dinghy too.
My Chesapeake 17LT I have taken to calling the "Enso Maru" for the rice paper zen circles on the hull. A rather small "maru" really:) My shearwater hybrid, I'm not sure yet, was thinking maybe "Sinister Maru" for the asymmetric stripe down the left-hand side of the deck.
After Canadian Ojibway woman and author (AKA Gertrude Bernard). Arguably the first modern environmentalist.
You might remember the story of turn-of-the-century author "Grey Owl" (real name Archie Bellaney) who ran away from England as a young man, pretended (OK I'm simplifying here) to be a Canadian Indigene ("Indian"), and wrote a bucn of books about beavers.
Well, Anahareo was his wife. She turned him from being a trapper of beavers into an advocate for their survival. She convinced him to stop trapping and set up one of the world's first animal sanctuaries. They may well have saved beavers from extinction.
An unsung heroine, largely forgotten.
for me, the significance of the name is in the idea that she is the woman that turned a larrikin (A lovable rogue) into someone who left the world better than he found it. Set him on the path of righteousness, as it were...
I named my kayak Mahutonga, which is the NZ Maori word for the Southern Cross constellation. I have been to New Zealand several times and it is definitely my wildest dream to be able to immigrate there.
I incorporated the Maori koru symbol into the deck of Mahutonga. The boat is a Redfish Spring Run Kenai
These stories are great! Ogata, hilarious!! Typical American humor, which always hits my funnybone, cause I R one, too. Some of my kin were dang "Welsh fer-inners", I think. But the rest?..as my daddy said when asked where we came from, he said "If you trace our family back far enough, it just disappears into misty hills of West Virginia…"
My wife and I retired two years ago and built our first and only boat to date, the CLC Skerry, last summer at IYRS in Newport under John Harris’s expert tutelage. She’s 90% complete and we too are eagerly awaiting spring to complete varnishing the interior and spars, and launch her for the first time. By choice, we never had children but we raised border collies for many years and had three wonderful border collies ourselves over a period of 17 years. We put our last one down last May and it was one of the saddest days of my life. Megan was seventeen and she was my first dog. I still cry over her ashes in our family room. However the other two border collies, Montana and Jiggs were also wonderful dogs and Montana especially was an unusually handsome one. He wea a beautiful tri-color (black, brown and white) as gentle as a breeze. We had to dedicate our lovingly built Skerry to our beloved border collies yet we couldn’t favor any one over the other for a name for our her. So we did the next best thing. There are three common commands for a border collie when working them on herding sheep, which is what they were originally bred for in the Scottish highlands. "Come by" means circle left, "Way to me!" means circle right, and "That’ll Do!" means job well done; hold and rest! What better name for a devotees of their beloved dogs than to name our newly built Skerry, "That’ll Do." In addition we onlaid a rice paper print of our Handsome One, Montana at the rear seat, God, we miss those dogs. Best, Bob H.
That's lovely story, Bob H - almost brought a tear to the eye. We enjoyed sharing our life with more than one Shetland Sheepdog (aka 'Shelties') at one time, and still yearn for another occasionally. But I do have to wonder at this desire to name our small craft - bigger yachts, etc., I can understand, but a sea-kayak? I'd feel embarrassed...! It's bit like people who have to give a name to their house - "Dunroamin', 'Thistledo', and so on. Aaaarrrggghhhhh! However - chacun a son gout, as they say!
After dirving ships around for a lot of yeas I tend to agree with Lol about putting a name on a kayak. I did see a great name on a little runabout in Chicago one time. On the transon was the name Karen. that was x’ed out and the name Jane was x’ed out and the name Mery was x’ed out and the name Beth was x’ed out and on and on and on. Now that guy knew how to use his boat! SEEYA Jack
As for the naming of kayaks, or any small craft, personally, I take it about as seriously as the naming of cats. Oh wait, I guess that's pretty seriously! :) And I have never bothered to put a name *on* any boat (or cat). The spirit and name of a wooden boat is something to contemplate during the design, construction and many hours of recreational sanding along the way.
And though it may be constructed from scraps of driftwood, sinew, skin and bone, or plywood, epoxy and fiberglass a proper kayak is a fully seaworthy vessel. (Or it had better be!) It is the result of some thousand(s of) year's refinement by people who trusted their lives, and the lives of their families to these ingenious craft. Such a small boat, powered by a single person, capable of safely navigating a very large ocean, whether as a matter of pure survival, or as a matter of play, earns my full respect, regardless of its size. Or perhaps especially *because* of its size.
As for the two small cats recently installed at my home (Happy Bottoms), so far, I'm thinking perhaps, "John Paul Jones" and "Enterprise" (I'm fully expecting "Enterprise" to eventually weigh more than some cedar strip canoes!:)
BOY!!! Twice in one night I must agree with the same person. I must be sic. Although I don't carry the eloquence of words that Ogata does, I must say that I name my yaks for several reasons, although I dont paint the names on them. The first reason I do is the fact that I grow a bond to my yaks when I am out in deep water knowing that my life is dependent on it working for me to get back.
Second, on the yaks I make/making I pour a lot of myself in building it from design, to craftmanship. It becomes a little part of me.
And third, when you own your own fleet (6 yaks and growing), you have to be able to seperate them when a buddy comes over and says which yak are you taking today?
Hey Eric, I think the two new arrivals need a big brother. I have a tuxedo that weighs in at 13 lbs., 1 1/2 years old and will ship for free.
Wow Kev, at 13 lbs he is approaching the weight of the mythical "nymph" canoe built from 3/16 inch strips! It's a very generous offer. But how's this for a counter-proposal? Free shipping of John Paul Jones and Enterprise to live with their big brother, plus 10 dollars instant-cash. Which has to be at least 5 times their actual retail value!
You've assembled a formidable kayak armada there. It must be an impressive sight should you get them all paddling in formation. And another one on the way?
