All in a name

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- Mayflower. Queen Mary. A certain Titanic comes to

mind.

For centuries, the names of famous ships have come to symbolize their

bearer’s stories. And while many of the 400-plus boats in this year’s

54th annual Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race probably won’t

find their way into history books, their names all come with a story.

Take Doug and Sandy Mills’ 35-foot Elan, for example, the couple’s

second boat that carries the name.

When the couple bought the first Elan, they researched the name and

decided to keep it instead of re-christening the boat.

“Elan means style and sophistication -- class,” said Sandy Mills. Add

an accent mark and you get “moose” in French.

“We loved it,” Mills said. “Some races we do with style and

sophistication and class, and some like a moose.”

When they got a new boat five years ago, they took the name with them.

Literally.

“We had the name taken off the old boat,” Sandy Mills said, adding

that as frequent racers, the couple wanted to keep the name.

Unlike vanity license plates -- new car owners interested in a

“Balboa” plate would have to settle for “Balboa5” -- boat names can be

duplicated. It’s the Department of Motor Vehicles registration numbers,

which are required for any sailboat that’s longer than 8 feet, that can

only be given out once per state.

As a result, there are several Duffy electric boats with the name “All

Charged Up” and “Charge It” skippering around Newport Harbor, said Gary

Cranes, a vice president of the Newport Beach-based boat building

company.

“There’s nothing preventing people from having the same name,” he

said, adding that the company keeps track of its boat names to encourage

variety.

Not that there’s a lack of names to choose from. A quick surfing

session on the Internet pops up dozens of Web sites devoted to helping

boat owners pick the right name. Bookstores carry a list of titles

devoted to the subject.

But then again, it is a bit like naming a child and totally up to the

owner’s imagination.

Sure, there are the all-time nautical theme favorites, represented in

the race by such boats as Windrose, Sea Dancer and Ed Quesada’s Sirena.

Quesada, the co-owner of a discount marine store in Newport Beach,

said he’d always liked the name, which means “mermaid” in Spanish.

“It’s easy to say on the radio,” he said. “And you can use it both in

English and Spanish, if you’re cruising down to Mexico.”

Others -- such as It’s OK, Cheap Sunglasses and Ouch! -- are among the

wackier ones that are fit to print.

And then there’s Jeffrey Cohen’s Mental Floss, a 31-foot trimaran. The

fact that Cohen’s a dentist had little to do with settling on the name.

“It’s actually a lyric from a Jimmy Buffet song,” Cohen said, adding

that his kids had made the decision.

Asked whether he considered sailing to be a form of mental flossing,

Cohen laughed.

“It cleans out everything between the ears,” he said.

FUN FACT

While boats that spend most of their time in California must be

registered within 120 days of entering the state, there’s one exception

to the rule. That’s if the ships are exclusively used for racing. But

then they’re only allowed in the water for races and tuneups, and it’s

probably worth the $9 registration fee and $5 annual renewal fee to keep

them wet all of the time.