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rob74 18 hours ago [-]
I can't help but think this article could have used some more polishing. The stats say that there are 101 boats named "Freedom", but if you enter "Freedom" in the search, it shows 48 boats with names including "Freedom", of which however only one is called just "Freedom". That doesn't really add up?!
Also, clicking "Movie/TV" yields a paltry 22 boats, which I think is far too few. E.g. the boat called "USS Enterprise" isn't included. Ok, it could be named after the 1958 aircraft carrier, but I would say the odds are far greater that it was named after the Starfleet ships. Then again, I can understand why "Starlight Express" is included under "Music", but why also all other boats with names containing the word "Starlight"?!
daemonologist 17 hours ago [-]
On the first point, I think it's a search of boat names, not boats - they're deduplicated.
rob74 17 hours ago [-]
Sure, but if you click on the boat called "Freedom", it shows you the data of one specific boat, not "there are X boats with this name". So I still think it's inconsistent...
jstanley 12 hours ago [-]
There are 101 boats called freedom but they're all the same boat because they're not de-duplicated.
Tepix 1 hours ago [-]
Agreed. The „foreign phrases“ category only contains entries starting with A or B
17 hours ago [-]
squigz 17 hours ago [-]
Err, the Enterprise has been a ship name for a few hundred years, quite a bit before Star Trek was ever conceived.
There's a fun time loop here: The Star Trek Enterprise and the real-life space shuttle Enterprise were each named after the other. In real life, the shuttle was named after the Star Trek ship. In-universe, the first starship Enterprise (NX-01) was named after the space shuttle. [Edit: I remember reading that years ago, but can't find any official source saying so now, although the intro to the Star Trek Enterprise tv series does emphasize the shuttle.]
(Of course, both really come from a long lineage of naval vessels with the name.)
BalinKing 13 hours ago [-]
Wikipedia (FWIW) says that the fictional USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) was named after the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) rather than the Space Shuttle Enterprise (OV-101).
ButlerianJihad 13 hours ago [-]
Folks, you're both correct!
GP is referring to in-universe canon, where the NCC-1701 was conceived and constructed by Starfleet, long after the Space Shuttle program was obsolete.
Wikipedia articles are largely discouraged from using in-universe perspectives or content, as opposed to Fandom/Wikia/Memory Alpha.
vikingerik 12 hours ago [-]
Right. Although in-universe, it was the NX-01 that was the genesis of the name for starships. NCC-1701 was a century later.
arethuza 17 hours ago [-]
Amusing that the page for ships called HMS Enterprise linked to from the USS Enterprise page points out that the name came originally from the French!
I always thought the carrier was named after Enterprise, PA since the US Navy usually names cruisers after medium sized cities and the earlier carriers were converted cruiser hulls.
squigz 17 hours ago [-]
Oh interesting, I didn't know that. It's an even older name than I thought!
Gravityloss 16 hours ago [-]
And the actual word is French too...
rob74 16 hours ago [-]
...although the French spell it with an extra "r". And they had more ships that were named Entreprenant(e) (Enterprising) than Entreprise...
> .although the French spell it with an extra "r".
We don't:
enterprise
entreprise
It's not "entrerprise" (that'd be an additional 'r').
It's not totally unlike "center", which is "centre" in french and also "centre" in UK english (but pronounced "center", unless I'm mistaken).
abruzzi 12 hours ago [-]
Nostromo could be a reference to Joseph Contrad's novel. Its also an italian word for boatswain (according to Wikipedia)
14 minutes ago [-]
CSMastermind 15 hours ago [-]
This reminds me of a girl I knew in college who worked as a contracter for a book publisher.
I was surprised to learn that one of the most common types of books people submitted were dairies of their sailing. Like, "we sailed to this island and there was bad weather then we sailed to this other island".
Apparently they'd get a manuscript like this once a week or something. Not sure what the market is like for books like that since I don't think I've ever seen one in a book store.
Doctor_Fegg 11 hours ago [-]
I edited a boating magazine (inland waterways, not sea-going) and we got article submissions like this all the time.
I ended up putting in our 'Notes for Contributors' something like "Write about what will be interesting to the _reader_, not what is interesting to you" because apparently this eluded people.
clort 14 hours ago [-]
They exist, but generally for more significant voyaging. For example
- Joshua Slocum - Sailing Alone Around The World (1900)
- H.W.Tilman - Mishief Among The Penguins (1961)
- Sir Alec Rose - My Lively Lady (1968)
- Annie Hill - Voyaging on a Small Income (1993)
at least are on my bookshelf
stockresearcher 7 hours ago [-]
The ultimate boat-log-as-a-book has to be Two Years Before the Mast, published in 1840. It has some great descriptions of the California coast, and does a pretty decent job of giving you an idea of why Los Angeles became the biggest city despite having the worst natural harbor.
Ocean sailing leaves a lot of free time. Also the people who can afford to do it have a lot of free time. So I don't find it that surprising.
detourdog 12 hours ago [-]
Sailing can be such a transformative experience I'm not surprised many people write books of the experience. My guess is most people's experience is that interesting to others.
TacticalCoder 12 hours ago [-]
> Not sure what the market is like for books like that since I don't think I've ever seen one in a book store.
Same.
But then vlogs about people sailing can be extremely successful, with millions of subscribers. But then I take it there's more appeal in seeing young couples, with a six-pack dude and a beautiful woman in bikini, sailing around the world than reading description of the various kind of waves.
lewispb 18 hours ago [-]
My boat's called Floating Point :)
JKCalhoun 17 hours ago [-]
Better than Overflow.
lossyalgo 16 hours ago [-]
If I had a boat I would totally steal that (and wait for other nerds to strike up conversations).
macintux 15 hours ago [-]
If you really want to attract the hard-core nerds, name it "IEEE 754" instead.
PaulDavisThe1st 10 hours ago [-]
Saw a car once near my house with the license plate "4745454B". I was slightly uncomfortable in realizing that I immediately knew what it meant.
lossyalgo 15 hours ago [-]
haha very cute! Got me thinking, IP69K might also be fun, albeit slightly less nerdy.
throwup238 15 hours ago [-]
I’ve always been impartial to Sea++
detourdog 12 hours ago [-]
I feel I like I have seen that name. I know I have seen puns on C but can't remember the specifics.
May have been C-Shell.
smcameron 11 hours ago [-]
I built a model sailboat[1] one time, and if it were for myself and not a gift, I would have named it "Sea Hacker".
If I had a boat and always dropped anchor at the same spot, regardless of tides/weather/etc., I'd name it Fixpoint.
contingencies 13 hours ago [-]
I draw the line at public points.
victorbjorklund 18 hours ago [-]
Epic name
xnorswap 18 hours ago [-]
The "Boat ownership by income" is interesting, although easy to misread at a glance.
7% of boat owners earning under $25k is of course very different from 7% of people earning under $25k owning a boat.
I'd love to see an actual chart of boat ownership at income levels, it would read quite differently I'm sure.
NooneAtAll3 6 hours ago [-]
> although easy to misread at a glance.
I think that's because there's an implied word missing
"Boat ownership *sorted* by income" or "Boat ownership *categorized* by income" makes the direction of subset explicit, but feels harder to read somewhat
foolfoolz 10 hours ago [-]
i don’t think this changes much. ownership is most common for the middle class. which makes perfect sense.
- if you’re rich you don’t need to own a boat, you can spend more per day to rent if you want to use one.
- the cost optimization of owning makes each day using it cheaper, even if it takes more time or space to store it. so those with less money that want to use a boat will buy it
for example renting a boat all day for use on lake tahoe might run you $2,000 to rent. it might cost you $300 in gas if you own the boat. you can tell yourself youre a boat owner now and get 10 days on the lake each year for $3,000 instead of $20,000
busyant 8 hours ago [-]
> if you’re rich you don’t need to own a boat, you can spend more per day to rent if you want to use one.
There's a bit by Bill Burr where he says something like "you don't want to be the guy that 'owns the boat' (too much upkeep). You want to be the friend of the guy that owns the boat (you supply a case of beer every time you go out and your friend supplies the boat)."
umeshunni 15 hours ago [-]
The other challenge I assume is that many boat owners are retired and presumably have little or no taxable income
nemomarx 15 hours ago [-]
Is there no way to measure that? I'm wondering how they pay for maintenance on the fixed income. Could be an interesting thing to analyze at least, maybe it depends on if you need to winter it...
happyopossum 14 hours ago [-]
"no taxable income" != "fixed income"
401Ks, IRAs, and a few other "retirement fund" options give you the option to access either your principal or investment earnings tax-free depending how they were set up.
olibaw 13 hours ago [-]
How is there not one boat named "Sunk Cost"...
eschneider 13 hours ago [-]
It looks bad on the insurance paperwork.
detourdog 12 hours ago [-]
That is a good name.
BigTuna 18 hours ago [-]
I've always thought Unsinkable II would be a good boat name
People think lots of things are good boat names. There's no reason there couldn't have more than one Unsinkable that hadn't sunk, and most boats aren't retired by sinking, so Unsinkable II would fit right in.
gilleain 18 hours ago [-]
What about "Really Actually Unsinkable 9"?
sorokod 17 hours ago [-]
Following in the footsteps of "The Hand of God 137"
arethuza 16 hours ago [-]
If I buy a yacht I'd name it "The Ends of Invention" - have been keeping that name handy for almost 40 years since I read CP in a oner in May 1988.
rrr_oh_man 17 hours ago [-]
You're missing the "You're absolutely right" prefix
jollyllama 16 hours ago [-]
Parent reply is actually way funnier and more original than the GP, which has already been repeated by two other posters.
thih9 2 hours ago [-]
How did nobody mention “PITIPIWPIW WIW WIW” yet?
There is a container ship with a name that is onomatopoeia for engine sounds.
It'd be awesome if there was enough metadata to link across to an AIS aggregator/map like https://www.marinetraffic.com/
detourdog 12 hours ago [-]
I don't understand. Marine Traffic is almost identical but has the advantage for displaying the location of the boat.
mellosouls 18 hours ago [-]
Snap!
amelius 16 hours ago [-]
I came here to say that it's apparently not in the set.
reactordev 18 hours ago [-]
I bought a sailboat in 2022 and sailed all over the caribbean from florida from 2022-2025. I came across a lot of funny boat names.
My boat was not among them sadly as I was serious about mine.
Fishizzle, Boat Float, Unsinkable II, Knot for Sail, etc.
JKCalhoun 17 hours ago [-]
Money Pit has stuck with me.
lacoolj 14 hours ago [-]
It's at the point I can tell, not only was AI used for this (cool, not a big deal, I use it too!) But I can tell Gemini was used here.
How can I tell? Cuz the last thing it designed for me used the exact same fonts, color tones, border sizes and spacing for buttons.
Maybe Gemini needs a higher default temperature.
Anyways, cool data gathered here tho! Thanks for sharing
georgel 13 hours ago [-]
I had these exact buttons come from DeepSeek for a demo landing page, it went down a path it called “memphis design”.
benmorris 11 hours ago [-]
That's the public data. I can tell you I've worked in this industry for 20+ years and run probably one of the biggest sites in this space selling boat graphics. The most popular name is actually "Aquaholic" ;-)
Doctor_Fegg 11 hours ago [-]
I remember seeing a river cruiser called "Sir Osis of the River"
6 hours ago [-]
buildsjets 14 hours ago [-]
Naming things is hard, it's best to pick a theme and stick with it.
A Columbo family mafioso I grew up near used to be in a never-ending competition with the Sultan of Brunei and the Aga Khan over who owned the worlds fastest megayacht. He named his megayachts after James Bond movies: For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, Moonraker, Casino Royale, Skyfall, and Diamnonds are Forever.
I have seen at least one super yacht named for a Bond film.
pimlottc 13 hours ago [-]
Any particular reason that “Andiamo” is so popular? It’s apparently Italian for “let’s go” but why is in the top 10? Is there some reference I’m missing?
brk 18 hours ago [-]
It had my boat name, which so far I haven't seen duplicated, and isn't particularly specific to anything that would preclude someone else from using it.
detourdog 12 hours ago [-]
I'm surprised my boat is the only in one in AIS also.
Aeroi 18 hours ago [-]
love this, i'm a boat captain and collect images of terrible boat names on my phone. people are insane, always baffles me what they will name a boat.
Uncle_Brumpus 18 hours ago [-]
I think the 2 funniest I found here are "TT Firebird Ribeye" which just sounds like an incredibly specific steakhouse menu item, and "Privacy II", which I just think is a bit on the funny-ironic side that we're all now looking at their vessel data and violating their privacy.
Rebelgecko 15 hours ago [-]
It should be illegal to leave a tantalizing comment like that without giving some examples :)
bergie 14 hours ago [-]
My favorite so far was a motorboat named "Maday". Imagine hailing them on VHF...
ourmandave 14 hours ago [-]
The Ocean Trader comes up, but it's not the same specs as the MV one.
Which is special forces support ship hiding in plain sight.
Probably because the article only uses data from the US, so it would be a bit strange if it included the name of a British AUV. Or are you wondering why no one in the US liked that story enough to name their own boat Boaty McBoatface? There is a Boaty Boat, so that's something...
clort 14 hours ago [-]
TFA said the names were taken from published AIS data, so perhaps Boaty has not shown up on USA AIS receivers as yet. Since IIRC it is an AUV thats not surprising I wonder if it even has an AIS transmitter. The ship they were asking for names for was actually named Sir David Attenborough in the end.
happyopossum 14 hours ago [-]
Anyone can name their boat Boaty McBoatface - i'm shocked there aren't dozens of them...
daviesiesies 14 hours ago [-]
I once saw a boat called the Betty Swollocks. It made me laugh.
aleksiy123 12 hours ago [-]
Some of these are really lacking in gravitas.
ButlerianJihad 11 hours ago [-]
Would you venture to say that there is a shortfall of it?
dvh 16 hours ago [-]
I'm on mobile and I can't figure out how to search.
segfault99 4 hours ago [-]
Disappointed that it's missing name of a yacht or catamaran I once saw on trailer parked by roadside in 1980s Queensland:
Blue E. Zarzoff
hbs18 18 hours ago [-]
Can't believe there's only one Stugots
bilsbie 14 hours ago [-]
I probably missed it but can you download all the names? I want to run it through microgpt and see what it comes up with.
TheMagicHorsey 14 hours ago [-]
Reminds me of the ship names in the Culture novels by Iain M Banks.
DonHopkins 11 hours ago [-]
Wikipedia deleted the page with a list of them, but the fans took up the challenge:
Also, clicking "Movie/TV" yields a paltry 22 boats, which I think is far too few. E.g. the boat called "USS Enterprise" isn't included. Ok, it could be named after the 1958 aircraft carrier, but I would say the odds are far greater that it was named after the Starfleet ships. Then again, I can understand why "Starlight Express" is included under "Music", but why also all other boats with names containing the word "Starlight"?!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise
(Of course, both really come from a long lineage of naval vessels with the name.)
GP is referring to in-universe canon, where the NCC-1701 was conceived and constructed by Starfleet, long after the Space Shuttle program was obsolete.
Wikipedia articles are largely discouraged from using in-universe perspectives or content, as opposed to Fandom/Wikia/Memory Alpha.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Enterprise
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Entreprenant
We don't:
It's not "entrerprise" (that'd be an additional 'r').It's not totally unlike "center", which is "centre" in french and also "centre" in UK english (but pronounced "center", unless I'm mistaken).
I was surprised to learn that one of the most common types of books people submitted were dairies of their sailing. Like, "we sailed to this island and there was bad weather then we sailed to this other island".
Apparently they'd get a manuscript like this once a week or something. Not sure what the market is like for books like that since I don't think I've ever seen one in a book store.
I ended up putting in our 'Notes for Contributors' something like "Write about what will be interesting to the _reader_, not what is interesting to you" because apparently this eluded people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Years_Before_the_Mast
Same.
But then vlogs about people sailing can be extremely successful, with millions of subscribers. But then I take it there's more appeal in seeing young couples, with a six-pack dude and a beautiful woman in bikini, sailing around the world than reading description of the various kind of waves.
May have been C-Shell.
[1] It was "Schooner Irene" from here: http://www.bearospaceindustries.com/boats2.html
7% of boat owners earning under $25k is of course very different from 7% of people earning under $25k owning a boat.
I'd love to see an actual chart of boat ownership at income levels, it would read quite differently I'm sure.
I think that's because there's an implied word missing
"Boat ownership *sorted* by income" or "Boat ownership *categorized* by income" makes the direction of subset explicit, but feels harder to read somewhat
- if you’re rich you don’t need to own a boat, you can spend more per day to rent if you want to use one.
- the cost optimization of owning makes each day using it cheaper, even if it takes more time or space to store it. so those with less money that want to use a boat will buy it
for example renting a boat all day for use on lake tahoe might run you $2,000 to rent. it might cost you $300 in gas if you own the boat. you can tell yourself youre a boat owner now and get 10 days on the lake each year for $3,000 instead of $20,000
There's a bit by Bill Burr where he says something like "you don't want to be the guy that 'owns the boat' (too much upkeep). You want to be the friend of the guy that owns the boat (you supply a case of beer every time you go out and your friend supplies the boat)."
401Ks, IRAs, and a few other "retirement fund" options give you the option to access either your principal or investment earnings tax-free depending how they were set up.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1640571/
There is a container ship with a name that is onomatopoeia for engine sounds.
https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/246124000
https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/sd97i4/read_dinghy_n...
It'd be awesome if there was enough metadata to link across to an AIS aggregator/map like https://www.marinetraffic.com/
My boat was not among them sadly as I was serious about mine.
Fishizzle, Boat Float, Unsinkable II, Knot for Sail, etc.
How can I tell? Cuz the last thing it designed for me used the exact same fonts, color tones, border sizes and spacing for buttons.
Maybe Gemini needs a higher default temperature.
Anyways, cool data gathered here tho! Thanks for sharing
A Columbo family mafioso I grew up near used to be in a never-ending competition with the Sultan of Brunei and the Aga Khan over who owned the worlds fastest megayacht. He named his megayachts after James Bond movies: For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, Moonraker, Casino Royale, Skyfall, and Diamnonds are Forever.
https://www.boatinternational.com/luxury-yacht-life/owners-e...
https://www.cosanostranews.com/2012/03/crime-really-does-pay...
Which is special forces support ship hiding in plain sight.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Ocean_Trader
No mention of Choppin' Broccoli which can be found in the Small Craft Harbor in San Francisco
My boat is there.
Can't be that often boat naming becomes headlines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_McBoatface
Blue E. Zarzoff
https://theculture.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_spacecraft
> Freedom
> Liberty
> Serenity
Reads like a state motto