kinnickkinnick

[ken.bryant]

It's always nice to have a boat with a (reasonably) unique name -- even when the boat is as yet but a gleam in the eye! As I mull over how to start construction of an Atkin "Maid of Endor", I've given her a "work in progress" name: Kinnickkinnick, the Salish name for a small, tough shrub found on Vancouver Island beaches.

Just wanted to make sure there weren't a million other kinnickkinnicks sailing the northwest coast (it may sound an obscure name to you easteners, but it isn't an obscure plant out here!) Anybody know of existing Kinnickkinnicks on the water?

[Donn]

It's also a ritual smoke:

"Pipe ceremony: The pipe is used both individually and in groups for prayer and ceremonial purposes. Participants gather in a circle. A braid of sweetgrass is burned to purify the area and those present, to make a sacred place for the spirits to visit. Tobacco or kinnickkinnick, a traditional mixture of bearberry and wild herbs or red willow shavings, is smoked so that prayers can be made to the Great Spirit or requests made of the spirits. The pipe may also be smoked to open other meetings or ceremonies. When not in use, the bowl and stem are separated and carried by one individual, the pipe holder."

[ken.bryant]

"It's also a ritual smoke...a traditional mix of bearberry..."

So it is. Bearberry is the other name for the plant (well, it has yet another one, if you're a Latin speaker: arctostaphylus uva-ursi, with "uva-ursi" meaning "beargrape" or "bearberry").

It gets used as groundcover in a lot of landscaping in these parts, but the only place I've ever seen it growing wild is right at the top of the beach, just above the high tide mark where few other things will grow.

[ken.bryant]

...and so perhaps "arcotstaphylus uva-ursi" should be considered as an alternative boat name. Hmmm. Nope, somehow I can't see that painted on the stern...

[J P]

Sometimes spelled "kinikinik", a palindrome.

[Lew Barrett]

I do! There's a Kinnickkinnick, at Friday Harbor. It's a 32 foot Nordic Tug owned by my friends Alan and Susan Rosenburg. Sorry to report this. How about naming the boat after anotherhardy, low growing shrub? Need a few suggestions?
:D

[ken.bryant]

Originally posted by Lew Barrett:
I do! There's a Kinnickkinnick, at Friday Harbor. It's a 32 foot Nordic Tug owned by my friends Alan and Susan Rosenburg. Sorry to report this. How about naming the boat after anotherhardy, low growing shrub? Need a few suggestions?
:D Oh well... So: how about "Crow"? Anybody know a boat named "Crow"?

[ken.bryant]

...And a thought: somebody needs to set up an on-line "name registry" (or maybe it already exists?) Nothing official or enforced, obviously; but it would be nice to have someplace you could search for existing boat names.

[ron ll]

There is a name registry for US documented boats at

[URL=http://www.st.nmfs.gov/st1/CoastGuard/VesselByName.html]http://www.st.nmfs.gov/st1/CoastGuard/VesselByName.html[/UR L]

I checked for Kinnickkinnick, returned 0. Fun to check other names there tho. A check for "Crow" returned 164 matches.

[ 01-03-2006, 02:00 PM: Message edited by: ron ll ]

[ken.bryant]

Thanks, Ron, that's a very useful site!

Of the 160+ results for "Crow", almost all are longer names containing "Crow" -- "Black Crow", etc. There are only three named simply "Crow", and they're all in the East (which for us out here might as well be another universe ;) ), so I'll keep that as a possibility. It's short; it'll fit on a tiny transom better than Kinnickkinnick would anyway!

[Steve Lansdowne]

Say, aren't you based in Kinnickkinnickbunkport?

[ken.bryant]

Nope, on this coast it's kinnickkinnickbunkstarboard.

[Concordia..41]

I can't tell your mast height, but if you plan on hailing any marinas or many bridges, naming boats should be like the advice I've heard for naming kids ...

Basically before you name your kid, it's advised to stand on the porch and scream the name repeatedly until you're blue in the face. If it still sounds good, go for it.

So practice hailing your local bridge. Ours is the Bridge of Lions so....

"Bridge of Lions, Bridge of Lions, Bridge of Lions, this is sailing vessel __________."

[ken.bryant]

Excellent advice! That's at least as important as how it looks on the transom...

[Dave Hadfield]

There are a number of different plants called that.

The one I've smoked is red osier dogwood, also known as red willow. In spring the outer red bark will shell off easily. You take a foot or so of peeled stick, then scrape shavings by holding your knife at 90 degrees, but leave them attached to the wood. When the whole stick is peeled this way you stick it in the ground beside a fire. It dries. Then you can crumble it up, mix it with tobacco, and smoke it in a pipe.

It tends to make the smoke more mild, perhaps mitigate the bite of the tobacco.

On a canoe trip that lasted longer than we thought my brother took up smoking again. First he made a pipe, then we had to extend the supply of tabac this way.

It wasn't bad -- very mild buzz. (Mind you, I don't have much to compare it to!)

[ken.bryant]

Oh sure. And you didn't inhale, either... ;)

[ken.bryant]

OK, people, I'm afraid I'm not going to stop until I've got a name. Those who are bored with the search ("What the $#* does it matter what he names his boat?") should tune out, and no hard feelings...

So: after due reflection, I reluctantly decided "Crow" didn't pass Ron's "hail to the bridge" test. But another local bird does, at least for me:

Whiskey-Jack. ("Vancouver Harbour Control, this is the sailing vessel Whiskey-Jack").

In Concordia's Coast Guard name registry there are no Whiskey Jacks listed.

It's a small, sassy local jay, also known as the Grey Jay or the Scrub Jay:

Whiskey-Jack (Gray Jay) and other naturalist subjects (http://www.pathcom.com/~wgbz/frameup.htm)

Bluish grey and white -- nice colors for a boat.

Go ahead, talk me out of it...

[ 01-04-2006, 03:03 AM: Message edited by: ken.bryant ]

[skuthorp]

Here's a site for Australian Aboriginal place names round Sydney, (see the ineractive map at the bottom)
http://www.livingharbour.net/aboriginal/place_names.htm
There must be a similar site in the US that has similar information. Native names are often very descriptive and you should be able to find one that suits. Providing of course that such practices are not regarded as insulting by the Nation concerned.

[Ron Williamson]

Whiskey Jack is an Aboriginal name, meaning 'camp robber'.They hang around campsites and steal food. There is another way to spell it,'Ouiskijac'or something, which would make you look,not sound,like less of an alky.
I like it.
R

[ken.bryant]

Many thanks to all who've helped me dither and vacillate. Somewhere along the line, I realized I'd already come to think of the (still nonexistent, but already strong-willed) boat as "Kinnickkinnick", and it refuses to consider other names.

So: with apologies to the folks with the tug in Friday Harbour (they're the other side of Haro Strait from where my boat will be moored, anyway, and it's "sailing vessel Kinnickkinnick" on one side of the border and "motor vessel Kinnickkinnick" on the other), Kinnickkinnick it is.

[ 01-05-2006, 11:30 PM: Message edited by: ken.bryant ]

[Vince Hoffmann]

Kinnickkinnick it is.Congradulations... daddy! ;)

[ken.bryant]

Thanks but no cigar... ;)