A Boat By Any Other Name Is Still a...

When we first bought our Helms we were immediately faced with a major dilemma, one that supersedes any other problems no matter how large or how small that may have been discovered. Bottom paint, who cares, standing rigging, so what, running rigging, maybe later. We need to get down into the meat and potatoes...what to name the boat.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, and you would know this had you been following along and paying attention, when we bought the boat the previous owners had named it Doo-Dah. I have to say right up front, I completely respect a persons' right to name their boat anything they like. It's a lot like naming your children. With all things being equal I think we can all agree that discretion needs to applied in two major areas of our lives, when deciding on names and tattoos. But I digress.


Lisa and I just aren't Doo-Dah type of people, not that there's anything wrong with it, but it's just not us. We're a little more...structured in our thinking, maybe that's the best way to look at it. One thing was certain, we needed to give this a great deal of thought and consideration. As you might imagine, I gave this more consideration than Lisa did.

I really wanted something that would capture the essence of sailing along with something that just moved your spirit. What could be better, I thought than calling the boat Lakeside,  

but Lisa felt that might be a bit much and didn't really reflect our sensibilities. Besides, how do you explain that name to someone at a cocktail party.

So I thought maybe I could reach back to my military days and name the boat after my old old unit...  

1st Armored Division a.k.a. "Old Ironsides"

 but it had already been done and did seem to be a bit much if not a little pretentious.

U.S.S. Constitution a.k.a. "Old Ironsides"

So we moved on and continued to try and think of a name that we both could share in. Finally, late one afternoon after a relaxing day of sailing, 

not our boat

we were heading home. Lisa was behind the wheel and I said, "You know babe, we both graduated from Francis Marion University, why don't we call it The Patriot after the school mascot, but that just didn't seem to fit and I certianly didn't want people to think we named our boat after you know who...Mr. "Aim small, miss small." himself.

but that was a great movie wasn't it.

 So we thought a little more and then it hit. We WILL name it after Francis Marion a.k.a. The Swamp Fox. Being one of the most colorful characters in our nations history and one of my favorite military leaders, I was thrilled with our decision.

After several weeks of searching we found a font we liked and after we had the boat pulled out of the water for repairs we had her new name applied.

I have to admit I loved the way it turned out and it just added one more step in making the close connection that sailors have with their boats. Slowly, through thought and work and sweat a bond begins to form. A strange inanimate codependency that is hard to describe. As practical and logical as sailors tend to be, these boats, these sloops, these yawls and ketchs, cutters and schooners invoke and instill these emotions that cause us to be impractical and illogical. 

Soon I plan to start showing and sharing the refit of Swamp Fox. I do hope you enjoy tagging along. Feel free to comment if you like what you read are if you have a question, and please share this with your friends.

Until next time...Fair winds and following seas.