Once we signed a contract to purchase a Nautitech 46 Open, we immediately started brainstorming its name. It’s not often that one gets to name a vessel!
At this point, you’re probably wondering where While One comes from. Before we get there, let’s review all of the names which we had written down.
There were several criteria in consideration when we ultimately chose a name.
- We wanted a name which was reasonably brief, easy to say, but yet not too easily confused with other words or names. Imagine making a VHF call with the vessel’s name. We did.
- We never really considered a name after a special woman in our life, although we we were in contract for a Hylas 49 which had a name comprised of two of the owners daughters.
- We wanted a name which was unique. When I narrowed down the list I used the USCG boat lookup website to see how many vessels were named similarly…I also even did a WhoIs search to see if I could get a URL and a GMAIL email address search!
- Puns and double-meanings are fun but, as we often found out, hard to come up with a unique one. But we tried!
- We spent a lot of time to find a name that reflects the identity of us which also, coincidently, referred to our boat’s identity and what it means to us.
- Names, songs, names of our favorite bands, etc. were all fair game.
- Finding a name which was clever or even funny was a big focus but ultimately, we chose a name which reflected more of us and the boat. What can I say…we’re both engineers.
Fun Names
Rummin’ Down a Dream
Groovin Cat
Afterdeck Chillin
Groovin Cat
Fun in the Sun
Sherine offered up this name for consideration. Having “Fun in the Sun” is something repeatedly offered up in jubilation by her! However, it’s not particularly unique and so we passed. Plus, “Fun in the Sun” isn’t exactly a short name.
Grateful Dead Related Names
Dead Ahead
Gr8ful / Grateful
Sherine and I have attended quite a few Grateful Dead concerts and the Grateful Dead is my favorite band by a long stretch. Those concerts, road trips, camping and everything surrounded by them holds such a special place in our hearts.
The song Iko Iko was written by the Dixie Cups in 1965 being a conglomeration of African, European and Native American influences. It was a staple of the Dead in the 90’s and I’ve read they’ve played it at just under 200 concerts from the late 70’s onward.
Song Names
I love music, especially live music and the Grateful Dead holds a very special place in my heart. Not all of these songs are Dead songs but the vast majority of them are. I went to my first show in Riverbend Music Center Hamilton, Ohio (Cincinnati, Ohio) in 1986 or 1987…I think I was a Junior, so perhaps that puts it in 1986. In any case, that was just the start of my passion for them and from then on, I did everything possible to see a show.
I’m certainly not as decorated as others with regards to the number of shows attended. Back then, you’d have to go through elaborate measures to get mail-order tickets or sit on speed-dial. I don’t completely remember everything you needed to do but it involved a 3 1/2 card with the show you wanted, # of tickets, a cashier’s check and a return envelop. You’d have to have everything perfect or they’d reject you. Further, you had to have them postmarked no earlier than a certain day. It was something else.
In the summer of ’92 I did a large portion of the Midwest / East Coast summer tour starting by a Greyhound to Louisville, KY and then hitchhiking the rest of the two weeks. What a blast.
China Cat
Ramble On Rose
Rambling Rose
Lost Sailor
Jack Straw
Lazy Lightning
Easy Wind
So Many Roads
Knot Fade Away (Not Fade Away)
Help Slip Franklin
Days Between
Mama Tried
Morning Dew
Stella Blue
The Other One
Chalkdust Torture
‘Round and ‘Round
China Catamaran Sunflower / China Cat Sunflower
Music Never Stopped
Wharf Rat
Love Light
Drums Space
Box of Rain
Scarlet Fire
Sunshine Daydream
They Love(d) Each Other
They Loved Each Other, a soulful song written by the late Robert Hunter and sung by Bobby, was one of our favorite songs when we were dating. We, of course, would have to drop the ‘d’.
Work Related Names
Applecat / Aplcat
Well, I can’t remember who came up with this, but it’s pretty self-explanatory..that said, I ultimately dismissed any name which reminded me of working for Apple, despite loving the company and being so appreciative of what they’ve done for me
Off Watch
In 2011/2012 I moved over from working on iPhone, leading the Analog Design and Validation teams, to working on Watch. I have been exceedingly fortunate to have worked on two world-changing products at Apple and, at the time of writing this blog, I still work for Apple leading the Watch System Architecture team.
This boat is going be our home while we cruise once we retire. Off Watch, suggested by Ken, was particularly clever and was on the short list for a while. However ultimately, I determined I wanted to the name to be more forward-looking and not a reminder or tribute to how we got there.
Memory Allocation
Memory Allocation was one of the lead horses for a good period of time. For those of you that have written software, this name will be familiar. For those of you that haven’t, here’s the meaning.
In “C”, malloc(x), is a function which returns a pointer to a block of memory in the heap of size x. What the heap is doesn’t matter but suffice it to say, malloc and free (the opposite function of malloc) is used to allocate and de-allocate memory in a computer or microprocessor.
Anyway, at this point you may be able to see the double-meaning. Our next chapter of life on our new boat is all about making memories! If this name wouldn’t cause a fellow cruiser to spark up a conversation at a Tiki bar, I don’t know what would!
Braces not Tabs!
The first computer language I learned was Basic on an Atari 400. I quickly outgrew that machine and got an Apple ][+ with a floppy disk. Its core was an 8-bit 6502 microprocessor and compared to a cassette tape, the floppy was single-sided and stored 144KB, if I remember correctly. What a machine! Writing in Assembly Language was the only way to generate any code which had any reasonable performance.
In High School (St. Xavier High School), I learned Pascal and COBOL using a VT-102 (?) terminal dialed into the University of Cincinnati’s Mainframes.
College brought 8086 assembly, Fortran and ultimately C which, for anybody who’s familiar, uses open and closed braces (‘{‘ & ‘}‘) to denote the beginning and end of a functional block. Used in conjunction with Tabs, well-written C is very easy to read.
Nowadays, it would be nearly impossible to find anybody who programs that isn’t familiar with or programs in Python. Python uses tabs to indicate a block…and boy, do I hate it! Of course, most of the folks that love Python dislike comments in their code…but perhaps I’m being a bit stereotypical.
Compiled at Runtime / Hungarian Notation / Ohms Law / Silicon Daydream / Electric Cat
Not sure why these had anything common with cruising, sailing and engineering but what the heck. Definitely on the Geek side of the spectrum.
Family, Love & Life Names
Magic of Three
Our three children. Out third boat.
A Yacht of Love
Too many words.
Tropical Pyramid
I don’t completely remember who came up with this one but I believe the intent was trying to relate our new home with the fact that Sherine is Egyptian. Perhaps a bit too obscure.
Peace, Tranquility and Relaxation
Livin Large
I’ve always loved the water and boats. Ever since I came back from my sailing classes on Lake Michigan in Chicago and started to page through a brochure for Hunter sailboats, I got an itch.
That was ~2000 and I’ve been working towards being able to cruise ever since and to me, this is Living Large.
Morning Calm / Morning Ripple / Morning Song
There’s nothing more peaceful and tranquil than waking up and sitting out on the deck in a calm, secluded anchorage. Even not so secluded anchorages are peaceful, at least until the power boats come roaring through at 6 and 7 A.M. (See my While One Shakedown post for more on this!)
Sailin’ Down a Dream
This name is a play on a Tom Petty song, Running Down a Dream. The band I started, Identity Problem (http://identityproblem.rocks), plays/played this song quite regularly.
Peace
Love the name, it just didn’t make the cut in terms of originality.
Hang / Hanging Loose
Gratitude
Another highly use name.
THE KNOT NAMES
Of course, we had to explore the play on nautical terms…
Knot Stressin’ / Knot Working / Knot missing it / Knot Missing Work / Knot Waiting Anymore / Knot To Worry
Yeah, you can tell we can’t get to retirement fast enough! In the end, perhaps it’s a tad bit over enthusiastic and many of them are not very unique.
Knot Us
We’re not going to be working forever! Knot Us…or something like that.
Knot So Bad / Knot Bad
Living on a boat, cruising the Caribbean and Bahamans is Knot So Bad!
Stress Knot
We can all use a little less stress in our lives. I’ve come to recognize that I need a certain amount of stress and anxiety…but it seems there’s a fine line of life expectancy reducing stress and just enough.
It’s About Time Names
After Work Plans
Don’t Happen Twice
Finally
Cruising could not have come fast enough. Finally!
Adrift at Last
At Last
Finally OhOhOh! / OOO / Oh Oh Tee Oh / Oh Oh Oh!
Yes, finally Out of the Office (OOO)!
California Getaway
I have really enjoyed California. It’s one of the few places in the world where you can actually ski and go to the beach in one day (although I’ve never really done that). It’s really a beautiful state.
That said, there’s a bunch of stuff that has worn me thin…but I’ll keep that to myself for now. At least for now…
Director of Electrons / Electron Conductor
Both Sherine and I are engineers…what can I say.
Paper Bag
I have absolutely no idea where this name came from or what it meant! That said, naming a boat Paper Bag and expecting it to carry us across the oceans seems like tempting fate.
Knot Going Back
Not going back home. Not going back to work.
Well, I do expect I will work again, should an opportunity present itself and I was looking to do something new. Who knows. Never say never.
We’re knotty
Probably not that unique, admittedly, but we really brainstormed a while on knot-themed names. This one actually didn’t really fit too well either…we’re not that naughty!
Why Knot?
Another Knot-themed named. Why not buy a very expensive depreciating boat, sell our appreciating home, put our stuff in storage and move onto a boat? Well, there’s a lot of reasons why I shouldn’t do this but regardless of all of these reasons, there’s one that I can’t get over as to why I should do this. I only have one life to live and I can pretty much guarantee, if I were on my death bed tomorrow, I’d regret not taking this leap but I wouldn’t regret not working one more month or year beyond what I’ve decided.
The Winner
While One
A While Loop is a programming construct whereby a certain block of code is repeated an unknown number of times until a certain condition is met. In programming, any non-zero value is TRUE. Therefore, a while(1) loop will execute indefinately!
In English, the word ‘while’ can be a noun, conjunction or proposition and, as a noun, mean “a period or interval of time.” This seemed fitting to describe the time we’re intending to spend cruising.
While One seemed like a winner to us:
- It’s unique – We’re the first vessel with this name documented with the USCG
- It’s related to our professions: Programmers and Electrical Engineers
- It goes on forever…
- Spending a While cruising is something we working towards!
- If we ever get another boat and name her, we can increment the number without changing the meaning
While (one) {…} / While (One) / While one:
These are all syntax derivatives of While One…but let’s not geek out too much.