While we deliberated, our boat chose her own name
Issue 64 : Jan/Feb 2009
It’s time to buy the champagne. The name of the Mega 30, our project boat, has been determined. Fate stepped in while we were deliberating. Her name will be Sunflower.
When we bought our trailerable sailboat in the winter of 2003, we dithered over a variety of names for her. From the beginning, we understood that she would be a “child of the prairie,” taking us to lakes and seasides far from home in ways that Mystic, our C&C 30, cannot. Mystic must travel on her own bottom. But this new boat would have no such limitations, scooting down the highways and small lake-access roads with nonchalance.
So our potential names for her included Prairie Dawn and a host of variations on that theme. Since she’s big and very yellow we decided that she would be named after the queen of the prairie blossoms, the sunflower. That first year I even sewed all her canvas in dark brown to go with the sunflower theme.
But then, as the number of her modifi cations and repair projects continued to grow beyond our wildest imaginings, so did our list of names. The years went by and, since we had not yet made an absolute commitment, we deliberated with a host of names, including some focused on our lifestyle as wandering editors. We considered names such as Rough Draft and Editor’s Note. We even considered Good Old Boat (now there’s a name that has worked for us in the past). Other names came and went as well, but none of those matter anymore.
Sailors are not farmers. They don’t even make good gardeners; the two activities compete for the same chunk of time. Years ago, however, early in my sailing career I tried to plant giant sunflowers by my office window. One year the chipmunks ate the seeds. The next year the rabbits found the tender shoots. It was a running battle that ran for four or five years before I conceded defeat and quit.
During this time I noticed the wild sunflowers growing by the side of the road. These roadside “volunteers” (weeds, really!) were not the giant sunflowers of my dreams, but rather a sturdier and simpler wild sunflower. These were true prairie flowers.
Imagine our surprise and delight when we returned home last August — after three wonderful weeks spent sailing Mystic on Lake Superior — to discover a 7-foot wild sunflower growing up in the shelter of our project boat. This wild sunflower had not been specifically planted, was completely untended in the summer drought, and was joyously creating one yellow blossom after another.
There will be no further debate. Our boat shall be named Sunflower.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
