Most unpronounceable boat name

[Captain Pre-Capsize]

For years I have marveled at how very odd some boat names are. "Must have quite a story behind it or at least mean something to the owner", I would think to myself. What are some you have seen?

I'll start us out with:

Aquidneck, Grimalkin, Houkule'a, Itatae, Aeolus, Camembert, Snallygaster, Weetamoe

[Ken Hutchins]

If you were from or every visited New England Aquidneck and Weetamoe would not be a problem. ;)

[Captain Pre-Capsize]

Ken:

Perhaps true, but if you visited the Chicago area could you pronounce Lombard? :D

[Ken Hutchins]

Here is a link about Weetamoe, now once you get to know the area this history is about (Fall River, Ma), just cross the Sakonet river and you will be on Aquidneck island, which today is best known by it's largest and well known community - Newport, Rhode Island. Of course Herreshoff was in Bristol RI, just across Mt Hope bay from the North end of Aquidneck Island, which explains why these names are on boats.
The link about Weetamoe has a bunch of Indian names mentioned which will test your linguistic skills.
Awashwonks, Sakonets, Wootonekanuske, Corbitant, Wamsutta, Massasoit, Pokonoket, Pocasset, Namumpum, Tetapanum, Weequequinequa, Quinquequanchet, Petownonowit, etc. smile.gif
Now why would someone from New Hampshire know these names? :confused:
Weetamoe (http://www.sailsinc.org/durfee/phillips1-6.pdf)
PS, no problem with Lombard. smile.gif

[John Turpin]

HMS Indefatigable

[Rick Tyler]

East coast Indian names. Heh. Local shibboleths include Sequim and Puyallup.

And, no, if you haven't been here you aren't pronouncing them properly.

- Rick

[Figment]

There's a 40something foot ketch somewhere in the neighborhood of Mystic whose name on the transom is in greek. I may be off by a character here or there, but to my memory it's spelled "XAPHEDRA", which I'm told translates to "Charisma". When hailing others on the VHF, they say Charisma.

To my knowlege the owners have no greek heritage.

[joejapan]

.

Saw a workboat named "Quahog"; now, unless one has been to the NewEngland Coast and has encountered the bivalve, one isn't gonna' be able to pronounce that name.

[ 10-23-2005, 07:05 PM: Message edited by: joejapan ]

[ssor]

Just try the lakes and rivers of Maine!!!! :D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_place_names_in_New_England_of_aboriginal_o rigin

Edited to add link. ;)

[ 10-23-2005, 08:24 PM: Message edited by: ssor ]

[Sea Frog]

Jauréguiberry ?

[capnharv]

HMS Agamemnon

[Ric_Bergstrom]

Hey!

I used to crew on Snallygaster with Chas Stein out of Gibson Island MD!!!

Some of the greatest sailing I ever did...even if it was on a glass boat.

Snallygaster was a Maryland swamp monster.

Corruption of german Schnell Geiste....fast ghost.

Ric

[notwoodbut...]

Full Tilt Boogey.
Is it just my difficulty?

[Thorne]

We've got the Mokelumne River out here (pronounced
"Mo-Kol-u-me"), but I've never seen a boat named after it.

Who was it that said, "Never name your boat something you'd be ashamed to hear over Ch. 16"?

;- )

[Rick Tyler]

Is this the "hard-to-pronounce" names thread, or the "unusual" names thread?

My first boat was named "Flowerpot." Adm. Dan Gallery claims that when his brother's DD was torpedoed in the Pacific, and he bravely led his crew to saving the ship and getting back to port that he sent his brother a telegram saying, "Just because you have a hole in your bottom, don't think you're a flowerpot."

Hey, I was 15.

- Rick

[John E Hardiman]

Most US Navy YTB's (large harbour tugs) are named after indian tribes, so you get things like WAUWATOSA (YTB 775), NATCHITOCHES (YTB 799), and DEKANAWIDA (YTB 831)

[johnw]

My Snipe is named Coelacanth. It's a 50-year-old cedar planked vessel racing against plastic, so I figured it was a living fossil.

Pronounced see-lu-canth.

People told me nobody would get it, but lots of people do, and think it's the perfect name for the boat.

[Alan D. Hyde]

In Fishguard once, I saw a boat named Aberystwyth, IIRC... :D

Alan

[dmede]

"Houkule'a" whats so hard about that?

Imagine if it was named "Humuhumu-nukunuku-a-pua’a" :D

[paladin]

Mark Hassels old boat "Talafiafaoe".....

[Vince Brennan]

To DEMEDE: Whassat... the smallest ship in Hawaiian waters?

To JOHN HARDIMAN: My tug was the USS Powhatan (YTM128) in San Juan. The other three tugs were all 750 series and had tribal names.

[ 10-26-2005, 01:43 PM: Message edited by: Vince Brennan ]

[dmede]

Originally posted by Vince Brennan:
To DEMEDE: Whassat... the smallest ship in Hawaiian waters?

LOL. I think the "Lau wili wili nuku nuku 'oi 'oi" is smaller and makes better way in a head sea :D

http://waquarium.otted.hawaii.edu/MLP/root/html/MarineLife/Vertebrates/longnose.gif

[John E Hardiman]

As for hawaiian names, there was a well known Farr 1 tonner on SF Bay called SWEET OKOLE. It was an "in" joke

[David McCollum]

My boat's original name, a 1950 Matthews 32' Playboat, was "Thithle Dew." The owner selected that implying that the smallest Matthews, while modest in comparison with her larger family members, was good enough for him. I often thought that he probably never had a marine radio, because I cannot say "This is Thithle Dew" three times fast.

[Hwyl]

Originally posted by Alan D. Hyde:
In Fishguard once, I saw a boat named Aberystwyth, IIRC... :D

Alanand the problem clearly lies with the reader.

Aberystwyth, means estuary of the river Ystwyth (rhymes with "pissed with") and it's the home of the National Library of Wales and a fine University.

I knew it would be only a matter of time before someone came up with a Welsh name. The language is phonetic, it's just your blinkers get in the way.

By te way, you were not in Fishguard, but Abergwaun.

[Wild Wassa]

'Szel a Vizen' ... people think it is easy, until her Skipper pronounces it.

'Enter the Drogon'. People think it is not 'Drogon' that they think they should be saying. Few get this one right.

Warren.

[ 10-26-2005, 10:35 PM: Message edited by: Wild Wassa ]

[Vince Brennan]

[/qb][/QUOTE]LOL. I think the "Lau wili wili nuku nuku 'oi 'oi" is smaller and makes better way in a head sea :D

Certainly has an interesting bowsprit!

[martin schulz]

that of my boat (took me some time to figure out the right pronaunciation with the help of some gaelic experts):

Sionnachan

[William R Roche]

I used to own a Drascombe Dabber that I renamned "Aoibhneas" (Irish, bliss, delight). The English used to ask me how to pronounce her name and when jokingly told that it would cost them a pound, often proffered the said sum! This was never accepted but always directed to the nearest lifeboat collection box.
How to prounce it, aah well that will cost you........

[Willin']

Saw a workboat named "Quahog"; now, unless one has been to the NewEngland Coast and has encountered the bivalve, one isn't gonna' be able to pronounce that name.

Joejapan, if that boat was in the Northwest it would probably be called the equally easy to mispronounce Geoduck. ;)

[David McCollum]

Aberystwyth is easy, I just remember an old limmerick:

There was a young girl from Aberystwyth
Who took grain to the mill to make grist with
The miller's son Jack
Laid her flat on her back
And united the organs they pissed with

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

Welsh names are really not too bad, Hwyl's right they are basically phonetic, but not using the english alphabet....

For proper horrible you want gaelic:
Sgurr nan Ceathreamhnan
Munro's Table by height. (http://www.nevis-view.co.uk/munros/height.php)

[Hwyl]

David, I know the limerick but was afraid of being booted. You are braver than I. It's attributed to the politician David Lloyd George.