Naming Our New Motorcat30

We spent a lot of time choosing a name for our new Motorcat30. I joked with my sailing buddies that "Heresy" would be a good name for a power boat owned by a sail boater. However, Grant Fjermedal, my source for all nautical lore and knowledge, advised against it. He said cursing a boat with a negative name would be wrong. He suggested a few I really liked, including Salty Cat, I countered with Beach Cat, among others, but was not satisfied. We even talked about how much fun it would be to have a fleet of Cats to charter -- Cove Cat, Beach Cat, Salty Cat, Wharf Cat, Swell Cat, etc.

One night I woke up at 2:00 AM with the name Quay Cat. Naturally, Sue was less excited about the name when I woke her up to tell her the name. Both kids liked the name and it passed Grant’s scrutiny, so "Quay Cat" it is.

We picked up the boat at 5PM from Bay Marine and trailered it to Kingston for launching. My wife had picked up a bottle of champagne for the launch and christening. Without a lot of fanfare, I backed the boat down the ramp to the water. We had worried about damaging the bows with the champagne bottle, but figured we could break it on the Kevlar beach shoes. No problem at least for the boat.

With the boat resting on the trailer in the water, I smiled for the camera, made up some nonsense for drama and ritual named the boat and tapped the bottle on the bottom of the port bow. BANG!! Glass shards hit me in the hand and tooth. (The tooth cost $250 to get fixed.) Note to future boat owners. Use a fake bottle of champagne, wrap it in a towel or skip the hokey ritual altogether.