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| My boat – Great Circle |
I was reading an update on the Cape to Rio race today. It seems like a boat named JM Busha 54 is surging and may well take handicap honors. JM Busha 54? What the heck kind of name is that anyway? Boats, no let me rephrase that, yachts used to be so elegant with beautiful names. I am thinking of the Concordia yawl that was moored in Marblehead harbor for many years. The bright work always gleamed and the name, Cotton Blossom, embossed in gold on the transom always caught the evening light. It was just beautiful. Same to with the boat that won the ’73 Rio Race, the Van de Stad design Stormy. What a perfect name for a winning yacht. I am looking at another boat in this years Rio race. Zulu Girl powered by MAZI ASSET MANAGEMENT. What a mouthful. How do you even fit that on a T-shirt? Zulu Girl is nice but I guess the sponsor needs their name in the lights. My first Rio race in 1979 didn’t even go to Rio. There were sanctions agains apartheid South Africa and so we had to go to Uruguay instead. I was sailing on a boat named Dabulamanzi, Zulu for Sweet Water. Beautiful name and a beautiful boat.
I named my own yacht Great Circle which I though was appropriately nautical. My next yacht I am going to name Spindrift, a word that I love and also the title of my first memoir. We are going to have a wooden tender, strip plank construction, white with varnish toe rail and I am going to name it Goodnight Moon. How about that?
I understand and appreciate that boats are now named for their sponsors and that has really sent some of the charm of sailboats into the dumper. Take Ineos Team UK for example. It’s a somewhat benign name if you don’t know that Ineos is largely a fracking company that is wrecking the environment at a rapid rate. At least the Kiwis made some effort when naming their brand new America’s Cup boat. Emirates Team New Zealand is affectionately known as Te Kahu which means ‘The Hawk.’ Their other test boat, Te Aihe means Dolphin. I like both but then again I love the Maori language. It rolls off your tongue.
The absolute worst and I mean by far the worst boat name was a 180-foot sleek jet black powerboat with heli pad and tinted windows. I was standing on the dock in Antibes when I saw the low slung beast pull into the harbor. The crew looked liked they had just stepped out of a mafia movie. I was intrigued and watched them dock the boat and that was when I saw the name. I am going to leave this story here after revealing the name because there is not much more to say. In stark white letter on the transom was the name; Beaver Retriever.
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