THIS WEEK IN ATLANTIQUE

THIS WEEK IN ATLANTIQUEBy Kirsten CorssenThe Story Behind the NameThink about how many things in your life have a name: your family members, pets, cars, and even your boats. Walking down the docks at Atlantique Marina you will come upon a variety of boats with unique and clever names painted on the back of them, but where do these names come from and why did people start naming their boats? They are really just another possession, right?Wrong. We believe our boats to be a part of our family. It is so much more than just carbon fiber that floats. In fact, people have such incredible emotional attachments to their boats that they come up with creative names to refer to when talking about them.The idea of naming boats began a long time ago in ancient Grecian days. Most boats were named to honor an ancient god hoping that in return the gods would provide them with protection and safety while at sea. This naming method slowly evolved to giving the boats feminine names and still holds true in the marina these days. As history shows, women were often treated with less respect than their male counterparts and were seen more as objects — therefore many people connected objects to be feminine, especially boats.The original reason for using specific names has changed drastically since olden times. Nowadays people name their boat after a variety of things: important people, a play on words, places, or beach sayings. All of these creative names may seem whimsical in nature, but they tend to hold a deeper meaning than just words painted on the boat. To dig deeper into the meaning of boat names I went around Atlantique Marina and found interesting stories behind the names.“Sea Glass”“Sea Glass” has been is a big part of the Rettaliata’s family for generations. Jeff, the current owner of the boat, grew up boating on “Sea Glass.” Then, five years ago he purchased the boat from his father, so he could introduce the boating world to his kids. Before “Sea Glass” they owned a wooden sail boat by the name of “Wood Dock.” When they purchased a fiberglass boat his mother couldn’t help but name it “Sea Glass,” confidently contradicting with the old boat. Jeff’s mom also loved collecting sea glass on the beach, so she decided the name was appropriate and Jeff enjoyed the story and character the name gave to the boat, so he kept it.“Shadynasty”Come on who doesn’t watch “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia?” Well if you do, while you were binge watching it on Netflix did you ever catch Frank’s girlfriend’s name, Shadynasty? The name read straight through is hysterical; separately, it reads Shady Nasty, equally if not more funny. Matt and Laura Cooper thought it was so funny they decided to name their boat after it. Their beautiful sailboat has “Shadynasty” painted in blue on the side for all in on the joke to get a good laugh.“Sweet Lorain”Following the old tradition of identifying boats after women, the Tesser family named their boat in honor of their loving mother and wife, Sweet Lorrain. Although Mr. Tesser thinks it should be “Not So” Sweet Lorrain, the story behind how they came up with it is clever. Lorrain’s mother always wanted a boat herself, and if she ever had one she would make her husband name it Sweet Lorrain. Sadly Lorrain never got that boat, but she did have a beautiful daughter that became her namesake. Lorrain Tesser grew up to acquire a boat of her own, hence the name “Sweet Lorrain.”“River Runner”The beautiful green-hull Intrepid that is commonly seen at the docks of Atlantique is owned by Doug and Jacqie Harned, and it’s named “River Runner.” It was dubbed the name for a couple reasons. First their house in Oakdale is at the bottom of Connetquot River, making it about a half an hour boat ride to the mouth of the river that leads to the bay. Also, one of their favorite things to do is cruise up and down the river. Therefore they came up with the name “River Runner,” referring to all the time spent on the river.“SueRay”The SueRay is truly a part of my own family, thanks to my amazing parents and their love of boating. There are countless memories of all the time spent on the boat during the summer that holds a spot in the heart of my friends and family as well as myself. The boat is manufactured by SeaRay and my parents names are Sue and Ray, making a perfect combination of meaning with a cleaver twist. The “SueRay” has spent every summer since I was born on the docks of Atlantique, making its home Fire Island, just like myself.