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A buddy of mine is the proud owner of a brand new Beneteau. It's been fun to watch him proceed through the selection and buying process, and I look forward to taking the helm of his new love one day.

He is in the midst of making the boat his own, and one of the items at the top of the list is arriving at a name. He asked me about this a few days ago; knowing that I'm on my third boat, he asked me how I've arrived at the various names that have been painted on the hulls I've owned.

The question got me thinking about the almost capricious ways I've named my boats, and the four "rules" I've come up with for the exercise.

BOAT NAMING RULE #1:MAKE IT MEANINGFUL

Come up with a name that means something to or about you. Brandy, my first boat, had a double meaning: Brandy was my nickname in college (after the song that was popular in my freshman year), and my husband's father owned a business called "Brandywine Something" (I forget the second word). Ciao Bella, my second boat, was named because we saw her right after spending a month in Italy; she looked so pretty there at the dock, it was natural to say the phrase we had been hearing addressed to pretty women for the past 30 days. Nehalennia was named because of my fascination with Celtic mythology; Nehalennia was a significant goddess in the North Sea region and protectress of mariners.

BOAT NAMING RULE #2: AVOID TRITENESS

This is kind of a corollary to #1. There seems to be a set of names that get used over and over again. I have lost count of how many "Destinys" and "Serenitys" I've seen on the water (my apologies to anyone whose boats are so named). I think it's important to strive for at least some degree of uniqueness in your name.

BOAT NAMING RULE #3: MAKE IT EASY TO SAY AND UNDERSTAND ON THE RADIO

This rule is more of a "do as I say, not as I do" thing. With my second boat, I learned that some names don't work very well over the radio. "Ciao Bella" was hard for people to understand, and the non-English pronunciation of the spelling made it useless to accurately spell it out vocally. We ended up saying "CHARLIE-HOTEL-OSCAR-WHISKY-BRAVO-ECHO-LIMA-ALPHA," which I'm sure made people wonder how on earth we had ever come up with THAT name!

BOAT NAMING RULE #4: IGNORE ONE OR MORE OF THE OTHER RULES IF NEEDED

I have come to believe that naming a boat is kind of a Zen exercise: When the namer is ready, the name will appear. And when the name appears, it may not follow one or more of the first three rules. For example, even though I formulated Rule #2 as a result of the experience with Boat #2, I still went with "Nehalennia" for Boat #3. The name presented itself to us in auspicious circumstances, and it had so much meaning for us that we chose to put up with the pronunciation and spelling difficulties we knew we would encounter.

AND WHAT ABOUT NAMING THE DINGHY?

Well, this is another spot where I have a rule and then break it. I think that the dinghy's name should have some relationship to the main boat: Brandy's dinghy was named "Snifter," for example. But like Rule #3 above, I didn't follow my own rule on the other two boats. Ciao Bella's dinghy, a white Avon RIB with a zippy 10 HP outboard, was named "White Lightning" because of the first experience of taking her out for a spin (after having owned a wooden-floorboard dinghy). And Nehalennia's dinghy is named "Digby," after an historical character who had a strange and creative way of determining longitude at sea (See the book Longitude by Dava Sobel for the story of Sir Kenelm Digby and his proposal.).

So even though my rules might make sense, I don't even follow them, which begs the question of why I call them "rules"!!! Still, if you are faced with naming or re-naming a boat, I invite you to at least consider the criteria I've listed.

Trish Lambert ( http://www.successinsweatpants.net ) has been a cruising sailor for over twenty-five years and a first mate three times, with three different skippers and three very different cruising styles. She knows first hand what makes cruising successful, and what she has to share may surprise you! Whether you are a skipper or first mate, a singlehander or part of a cruising couple, sail boater or power boater, Trish has insights that will help make your cruising dream a reality.

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