The time to announce a winner has arrived in our 2018 Boat Name Contest and while it was a close race between our first and second place winners, Heartbeat, an American Tug, won over voter’s hearts on the way to tallying 2822 votes. It was a close competition with 5 to 1 who finished in second with a solid showing of 2311 votes. A bit further back in the vote count, a Grand Banks 46, Dessert First, took third place with 650 votes.
Take a look at the three winners below and their great prizes. Personally, we had a lot of fun seeing all the submitted boat names. We appreciate all our readers who provided submissions and voted in this campaign and we appreciate the support and prizes provided by Fusion, Mazu Marine, and Icom. If you missed scrolling through all the submissions, see the gallery below.
1st Place, 2,822 Votes:
Heartbeat, American Tug 34
About the Name:
Inspiration for the boat name: “The Bucket List of all those things in life can easily be set aside for too long. But if you find yourself having triple bypass heart surgery in your early 40s that list takes on a renewed importance. We found the boat, quit our jobs and and will embark on completing The Great Loop aboard our new to us boat “Heartbeat” in the Fall. Life is unpredictable, having a heartbeat means you are alive – get out and live the life you dream of.”
The Prize:
The proud owners of Heartbeat will be taking home the perfect piece of mind for their trip around the Great Loop next year, a Mazu mSeries m2500 Bundle, the m2500 sentry bundle, and the full Mazu app. With this system by Mazu they will have complete global satellite coverage for SOS with a 24/7 search and rescue team. The mSeries also provides weather reports, SMS messaging, email, and automated positioning updates. The sentry kit provides boat monitoring for any time you are off the boat from high water alarms to entry sensors. Learn more at Mazu-Marine.com.
2nd Place, 2,311 Votes:
5 to 1, Hatteras 48 Cockpit Motoryacht
About the Name:
“I am partial to my boat’s name, “5 to 1“. As the transom indicates, I have five daughters and one boy who clearly feels out numbered by his sisters. I love the reaction of other boaters as they drift by our boat anchored on American River or in the Sacramento Delta. Once people learn that the young man depicted on the transom is my son, and the others my daughters, I have been characterized as crazy, brave and patient or “poor little guy.” Most often, however, those passing by simply utter…”wow!”
I love my boat’s name and I love my boat; a 1981 48′ Hatteras Cockpit Motoryacht that is moored at the Sacramento Yacht Club. We extensively cruise the Sacramento Delta and San Francisco Bay. Next summer, my wife and I (with the only child left at home…hopefully) plan to cruise up the west coast and cruise the San Juan Islands; however, an extensive refit is a head of plans. Any of the prizes offered is on our list for the refit (which begins in earnest after this summer’s cruising season ends).”
The Prize:
Matthew & Monique Smith’s kids are going to be rocking out next summer with a brand new Fusion Apollo Series 770 entertainment system. The Fusion Apollo Series has won several awards (2018 NMEA Product of Excellence Award and the NMMA Innovation Award at IBEX this year, to name a few) recognizing it for its superior sound, innovative design, and sleek presentation. Fusion is truly a brand apart in the audio game. Check out Ben Ellison’s review of the Apollo series from earlier this year.
3rd Place, 650 Votes:
Dessert First, Grand Banks 46
About the Name:
“We were at the 2016 Anacortes, Washington, TrawlerFest eating cinnamon rolls at the Calico Cupboard when our boat name clicked for my wife and me: “Dessert First!” We often order dessert instead of an appetizer and get the strangest looks from wait staff. However, the underlying meaning is in the fact that we began our cruising adventures before a house, kids, or retirement aboard our Grand Banks 46 Classic.”
The Prize:
The Bartos will be bringing a new toy to Dessert First as well, a brand new Icom IC-M25 VHF handheld radio. A handheld VHF is a must-have for every boating adventure, from your ditch bag to rides ashore in the dinghy. The Icom M25 not only floats but has a flashing light that activates even if the radio is off when it hits the water, making retrieval easier. With a 1500mAh Li-ion battery the radio has an 11-hour operation time between charges and features an output power of up to 5 watts.
The Other Contenders:
Our six year old nephew came up with the name, back when we had three labs. This is our second boat with that name. We were worried people couldn’t read the name with the sitting Lab as the letter A. In truth, most read Lab Partners without seeing the A and ask if we are scientists or met in a lab.
42 Votes
Our boat is a 1971 Pearson Portsmouth. Definitely a slow boat and we wanted a name to reflect that, as well as the fact that my wife is a quilt artist. She essentially creates quilts meant to be wall art, therefore the name.
5 Votes
It’s a Bayliner 2452. A ubiquitous all-around boat. Kinda like a Ford Explorer.
7 Votes
The name ‘FILOLI’ (“Fie-low-lee”)is after the historic Garden & Estate in Woodside, CA. The owners love the original meaning of the name as well as what the place represents. In addition, they enjoy spending time at the beautiful CA National Trust for Historic Preservation it has become. Filoli was built starting in 1915 by a prominent San Franciscan who came up with the name using the first two letters of three words representing his personal credo: FIght for a just cause. LOve your fellow being. LIve a good life.
2 Votes
I have attached a few shots of our boat- Crossconnect 6, named for the fact that I have been in the Communications (Technology & Networking) business for my career, owning my own tech companies for many years. She is an Azimut 55 Evolution, with Cat C-12 Power and every conceivable option known to man (and woman too). She is a floating tech/data center with voice/data/video, and even a few hundred feet of fiber optic cable strung through the hull for specialty networking (top secret) systems. We love this boat, an happily cruise the Northeast, from NY to Block Island, Newport, Martha’s Vineyard and of course our fav destination… Nantucket.
2 Votes
This is our 37 foot Kha Shing trawler named Eagle Heart. For Valentines day, 2014, Roy Henry Vickers ( a British Columbia native artist) drew this pair of eagles “kissing”. Eagles mate for life, and we thought this was appropriate name after our 44 years of marriage. Susan and I have just completed the Great Loop and plan to start the next one this year!
95 Votes
Our boat is named Nepidae (pronounced Nep a day, but also could be Nep a dee). She is a 1986, 43′ Albin Sundeck. Wikipedia defines Nepidae as, “Nepidae is a family of exclusively aquatic Heteropteran insects in the order Hemiptera.[1] They are commonly called water scorpions for their superficial resemblance to scorpions, due to their raptorial forelegs and the presence of a long slender process at the posterior end of the abdomen, resembling a tail”. A water scorpion prefers, “slow-moving freshwater habitats” which our trawler likes. I have attached a picture of the stern of our boat which shows the addition of our boat name on the skirt of the sundeck. I felt with the dinghy on the stern a clear view of the name was necessary as shown in the 2nd picture where we are on the wall at Waterford, NY. IF you check the documentation site, we are the only boat of that name. Oh, BTW, my wife and I are both Scorpio’s.
8 Votes
Our boat is a, Michael Kasten designed, custom ocean capable trawler that was launched in Halifax in the summer of 2010. She is named “Passage of Time.” We chose the name by stealing a line from a James Taylor song (we are “groupies”) that captures precisely how we view boating and why it is important to us. The line is: “The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.” Our decking is a cork material that allows you to embed lines, text, really anything, into the material. We gave James credit on our swim platform — where we inscribed the entire line that inspired our boat name.
453 Votes,
Honorable Mention as Editor in Chief, Jonathan Cooper’s favorite entry.
We have Diana IV, a 2005 Paul Gartside-designed 24’ cabin launch, he built her for an Ontario couple who had him store and maintain the boat for their use in the Canadian Pacific Northwest. Paul lived there at the time and when he moved to Nova Scotia the owners had the boat brought east for cruising in the Maritimes. We have owned the boat since 2012 and cruise Downeast each summer as well as use her for family outings nearby. (Not what you all think of as a ‘passage maker’, but she suits our needs.) We’re able to visit the least populated and wildest offshore Maine islands at leisure with our propane heat and stove, water tanks and icebox. “D4” has a head, vee berths and a small diesel with vee-drive, mounted aft in an engine box where all through-hulls, etc. are located. Thus we are able to keep the boat in the water year-round here, heated and ready for winter days when the sun shines and all is calm.
2 Votes
As Mazel Tov is Yiddish for good luck , we couldn’t think of anything more appropriate and unique.
14 Votes
Allow me to introduce you to “Affliction”. A 34 foot Webber Cove, vintage 1976 (rebuilt). I grew up along side my dad’s 26 foot Mackenzie Cuttyhunk bass boat and all the painting and varnishing that came with it. Follow that with a stint in the US Coast Guard and my blood was thoroughly diluted in salt water. After toying with small sport-type boats over the years I finally found my bride. Affliction indeed!
9 Votes
I’m not Danish but I thought the word “Hygge” Captured the spirit our boat just perfectly and how we use it. My wife was not particularly enthusiastic because she didn’t think anybody would know what the word meant. To which I responded it’s a conversation starter. We got the boat delivered in Seattle and cruised to British Columbia and literally at the first dock at LadySmith a woman from Denmark saw the boat name and was very excited and knew what it meant of course…
10 Votes
Here is our baby. A 1980 Bertram. The name is mostly self explanatory. We are in the Vancouver area of western Canada. No marlin here but salmon, big halibut and lingcod and occasionally some offshore tuna.
2 Votes
We have a 1930 Barge in Europe, cruising the canals and rivers, in Holland, Belgium, France, Germany etc. Being a Dutch and American Couple we had to find a way to show that and include our origins so we used a very common Dutch male name for the boat. Jan-Kees, but ask any English speaker to pronounce it and it becomes “Yankees” The next thing we had to do is select a home port. The Mrs Being from Texas and Me Being from The Netherlands we found the perfect place… Amsterdam Texas so we are Jan-Kees (Yankees) from Amsterdam Texas in Europe. ( we are in Amsterdam this year actually)
4 Votes
Honorable Mention as Deputy Editor, Brian Lind’s favorite entry.
Believe a Bull is obviously a play on my nickname “Bull” (last name Bullis), but also in that I told friends that I was gonna get a Mainship trawler one day after I first saw them in 1995. So “Bull” (me) actually is “believable”. I bought her in 2011.
6 Votes
My wife and I met on a blind date arranged by mutual friends. I knew the night that I met her, that I was going to marry her. Eight months later, we eloped. In January 2018 we celebrated 50 years of romance and marriage. When we met, we both enjoyed slow dancing, more than fast. It’s something that’s never changed – it’s just one more opportunity to hold each other close. Though we considered MANY names for our “new-to-us” boat, “Slow Dance” best represented our 50 years together and the speed we planned to cruise. As my wife tells friends and family, “Slow Dance” is her “forever” boat. I concur.
11 Votes
As a lifelong boating family we have owned several boats and always have our own boat naming contest. Our son John won our family contest when he submitted “Fishful Thinking” for our 29’ Everglades. The above photo was taken by my wife “Grammy” of “Grandaddy” fluke fishing with grandsons Turner and Jude Ryon in the bay at Beach Haven, NJ, our favorite family activity aboard “Fishful Thinking.”
180 Votes
