Hey All!

We're looking for interesting stories on how you came up with your houseboat's name. if you think you have an interesting story send them to jocelyn@harrispublishing.com.

Thanks!

JUBILATION - out of the Bible

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OLD HOUSEBOATER

My neighbor's wife named their boat " PECKERHEAD" after his brother.

Okay so what are the stories behind them?

LunaSea
This has been the craziest deal I have ever been in. I have never had a seller try so hard NOT to sell something. Called the listed broker on the phone, talked about the boat and told him I would like to visit the boat. I am in Louisiana, broker in TN. and boat and owner in TX. Broker gives me owner phone number, called made appt to visit, telling owner Mr. --- gave us her number. First thing owner asked is Can you afford this boat? Appt is at 9:00 in the morning; at 8:30 the morning of the appt my phone rings, it is the owner saying that they are at the boat and why am I not there? When we show up at the boat the owner introduces her self as "I am --- -----" I am one of the biggest real estate agents in TX. Well; knew I was in trouble. Was asked again -Do you have enough money to buy this boat!!! After looking at the boat and liking what we saw I told her I would call Mr. ----, the broker to prepare a contract. She says "Who is Mr. ------? He has nothing to do with this boat". I said, he is the broker. Her answer "we fired him". Well after a week of owner / broker emails and who knows what else I get a contract. After contract signed I had a mechanic at the boat looking over a few things and Miss Owner shows up and calls police. This is my boat, and no one is to be on MY BOAT. Yes, I guess she was right on that one. Have boat surveyed and she would only let certain people survey HER BOAT. Well that changed, surveyor called me in middle of the survey and was going to walk off as she knew more about boats than he did. Got that straight! After survey and ready to pull the trigger on the deal I get a call from a man asking if I am buying this certain boat. I said, YES. He tells me he is the broker of record and I did not sign a contract with him. HERE WE GO AGAIN;;;; After another 2 weeks a deal is cut between broker listed on the web, broker of record and owner. Please keep in mind that I paid the first broker a down payment when I got the contract. Get a call from owner, Ron, you know it says in the contract that after the survey you can back out if you want to. Lets do this- enclosed you will find another contract between me and you; "We do not need those brokers, do we? Please keep in mine that this person works in the real estate business and makes a living from commissions. My answer NO WAY,,, Deal signed by all; ready for the closing, SO I THOUGHT! Miss Owner wants the money wired directly to her account and she will pay off the mortage and all other fees and commissions. NO WAY,,, After another week it is decided to wire money to a TX bank and they will hold the bill of sale and pay off the mortage note. Miss Owner said money had to be wired; no bank checks etc. After another few days of my bank and her bank working together a deal done! Well so I thought,,,,,-- Day before money is to be wired I call Miss Owner to see what else can go wrong lol,,, and it did!! Was told that I am NOT ALLOWED on the boat for 24 hours after money is received at her bank and she is not responible for any thing. Deal Off,,, two days later got a call from broker # 2 saying that he will put boat on his insurance because she had so much to get off the boat and the boat had soooooo many memories that it would be just to hard on her with other people there. Deal On,,,,, Money Wired,, Bank Has Papers,,, drivng from La to TX. to get with transport company and come south,,,Well So I thought! Get to the marina talking with broker # 2,(boat is at his marina) Ron, we have a problem. Miss Owner will not pay us our commission! After a extended stay in TX. of a few days we worked a deal that so that he would let the boat leave.
On the way home I asked my wife what are we going to named the boat, with out a second thought she said LunaSea because this has beeeeeen the craziest deal ever!!!!

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45 Blue Water
Houma, Louisiana
Mile Post 60 ICW

We had a friend named Lora Lee who loved the beach and Jimmy Buffett music. She loved our children and that was her dream to have a baby of her own.

Lora and her fiance found out she was pregnant a few months before their wedding and it was the happiest time of their lives. Then Lora started to have terrible back pain. Her doctor said it was just due to the pregnancy but the pain kept getting worse. After seeing a specialist they found out she had breast cancer that had spread to her spine. She was given the choice of aborting the baby and starting agressive treatment or carrying the baby until term and then taking her chances. She choose to keep the baby and he was born healthy. But by then it was too late for Lora. She died three months later on the day before Mother's Day.

When we bought our boat our family had agreed on a name for the boat. Then one night I had a dream that we went out to the boat and as we boarded my wife said, "When did you decide on that name?" When I looked up at the back of the dock box on the top deck there it was in big red letters--- LORA LEE
When I told my family about the dream we agreed that had to be the name.

We always said if Lora was still alive she'd want to be with us on the boat every weekend. She is.

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Mark
1979 Crest
Brookville Lake, IN

Edited: 06/19/2012 at 07:21:04 AM by CaptMark

The best boat-naming story is an old Flintstones cartoon where Fred and Barney buy a boat together.

They are fighting over what the name will be. Fred wants to name it the Nautical Queen. Barney wants the name to be Sea Witch.

They tell the wives they finally came to a compromise--- they'd use the first three letters from each name---

NAU-SEA

Wilma exclaims, "But that spells nausea!"

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Mark
1979 Crest
Brookville Lake, IN

We are named Off Course with the 15 on the pin flag. We live on the 15th hole at a local golf course so we tried to combine a little of both.

Blink, Blink..wow



Got to rename my boat, thinking of "Deliberate Insanity" Got to be insane to boat, right?

Really like Off Course!! Nice fun name.

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1977 58' Aluminum Sumerset
Kentucky Lake

We haven't renamed our Houseboat yet. It's now "Soft Wind", which is completely wrong. The pinnacle of that happened last August when a 60-80mph dry storm came across the lake, bringing 4' of the other side of the lake with it. Between the windage on all the boats and the 4' storm surge, our dock pilings simply came out of the lake bottom and off we, the dock and 25 boats, went. That was no fun.

We've come up with several "maybe's" for a name, but so far nothing's stuck yet...

Now, there is a story behind our name for the Party Cruiser. The day we brought her home we got into cleaning her up real good. Here's a pic of the admiral and her pride & joy, Rusty, her toy poodle...




It turned out that this was the one and only day Rusty ever spent on that boat. Later than night he became lethargic and didn't act himself. We took him to the vet, and he had some blood disease. He was in the hospital during our maiden voyage, and he died a couple of days later, very sad. The new boat really helped, it was especially therapeutic for the admiral. We went out often, but not far, and just shut down and enjoyed the serenity. It was like our own little island. And that led to:







===========

I designed and made the stickers myself (part of what I do for a living)...

The backwards "R"--- That's for Rusty, hoping he's checking in from the other side...



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1988 SkipperLiner 53x14
1995 Tracker Party Cruiser 32 *for sale*
2003 Chaparral 260 SSI
2000 Allegro Bus 40' DP

Edited: 06/19/2012 at 06:38:19 PM by FranticallyRelaxing

"Miller Tyme", Just a play off my last name, and the credit for it goes to my ex-wife who liked it better than the other choice, "Wally and the Beaver"

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UC FANS
1999, 52' Monticello - Miller Tyme
Port of Aurora IN

We'd tossed around ideas for the name of this crazy project for years... seriously, years! Our Hero wanted to name it The Amishman's Wife, in honor of his beloved homeland and its good people. Ahem... the boat is slow, ungainly, and broad of beam. People might think it was named after me.... not an option. OK, as a nod to the Amish folk, we could name it the Daudy Haus, which is the little house on the farm that Amish grandparents move into after the kids are grown and the eldest son and his expanding farm family take over the big house. Eh. Maybe not. A little obscure. Despite the twin hulls and the resident feline, the Cat House was right out. So was Le Chat-Eau. The neighbors all still call it The Ark. And for a while we seriously considered Leviathan, of which the Psalmist wrote: "There is the sea, great and wide, teeming with creatures innumerable, and there is that Leviathan, which He hath built to sport therein." Somehow seemed too ponderous, though.
Somebody said you should name it after the youngest female in the family. Well, our eyes fell on wee granddaughter Lily, all of a year old by then. Lily Pad? Ah... it's been done. From there, it was only a hop and a skip to Lotus... lotus... LOTUS EATER! Named in honor of those drug-addled lazy bums that waylaid Odysseus's crew with strong drink and other decadent amusements. The sailors were most reluctant to go home again or ever do another lick of work, hoping instead to linger in the land where it was forever afternoon. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

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Amelia
Edenton, NC

Edited: 06/22/2012 at 07:13:47 PM by Amelia

We just renamed our new-to-us boat "Serenity"
A while back we were addicted a a TV series "Firefly" about a futuristic red neck bunch of space travelers.Their ship was named "Serenity" and their life on board was adventurous and anything but serene.

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Never wrecked a boat while awake or sober

Kemah, Tx. - Galveston Bay

we was thinking of naming the new boat....atica

another
thing
i
cant
afford

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1991 gibson 44 executive
454's
norwich,ohio
docked on the good ole ohio river in marietta

Hehe that is the other name I am kicking around. I also like it for the same reasons you list. I read the book and watched the movie. One of my favorites in a long time.

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1977 58' Aluminum Sumerset
Kentucky Lake

Our 2 houseboats have been named SHOREBOUND. We use our last name, plus the fact we are either bound for the shore or tied to the shore. I wanted to name our first boat SIDEWINDER, because it had outboards at the outside corners, and we boated in the Mojave desert. The boss had other plans, however. You know how they are...

Somewhere - that way if someone from work calls I can say that I am "somewhere" and not be lying.

Better Days - My wife is a hige Goo Goo Dolls fan and this is one of their songs. We can our boats after Catrina and if you remember the Goo Goo Dolls re-opened the Super Dome by playing this song. The logo extends to form a Christian Fish symbol as we always look forward to Heaven. Better Days are ahead!!!

Well we just named the new boat. We have kicked it around and we wanted something to fit us. My wife is italian and wanted something out of the norm so we went with

La Bella Vita

(The Beautiful Life)

When we get our speedboat, I get to name it what I want.