A Boat By Any Other Name Is Still A Boat.....Right?

Feb. 9, 2006

The Perfect Storm, “The Hulk”, Captain Kirk……the Shalala? No, they’re not movies or characters in them. They are all names of the racing shells used by the Miami women’s rowing team. Most of the boats that teams use are named either as a dedication, such as “The Hulk” dedicated to the rowing strength coach Victor “The Hulk” Ishmael, or for whoever donated money to purchase the boat.

Does the name really matter though? Junior Karen Wiley said that her favorite boat name is Scorecard Harry’s, a boat that her rowing club at home uses. When asked why she replied, “It was a really good boat,” and if it wasn’t so good would she still like the name, “It’s an ok name I guess.”

A freshman on the rowing team thinks that boat names should be exciting, although she recognizes the importance of honoring people, “Boats named after people are kind of plain.” She did say that having “The Hulk” adds excitement to a normal boat name that is dedicated to someone. So why name a boat? Does a fancy name ever intimidate anyone? Coxswain Meghan Leydecker says “No, but we should definitely work on that.”

With UM’s black warm-ups and black boats they seem to portray gloom before a storm, hopefully for the competition. Many of the boats have storm themed names, and one of the boats was actually referred to as “The Stealth Boat” earlier this year at the Head of the Hooch Regatta. The storm theme seems to be fitting as they look to blow past the competition this spring. They are back on the water practicing after an intensive dry land season and will see their first action of the year March 17-19 in Austin, Texas at the Longhorn Invitational Regatta.