Sunday, September 24, 2006

Interesting Boats: Fishing Vessel Miss Vicious Soon to be Moonfish

At 2:54 PM on Friday I became the official owner of the Miss Vicious. Yesterday, in 20 knots and 5 to 8 foot seas, I steamed the boat from Round Pond to Lermond Cove in Rockland, where it will stay until I can fix those things that are broken.

Boat is fat bellied, yet fast and nimble. Beast-like. A one of a kind, in boating parlance, a one-off. I have never seen another boat like it, and I have seen a lot of boats. (I wrote a boat building column for 15 years.) Unfortunately, its current moniker, Miss Vicious, won't work for me.

So how does one go about choosing a boat name? For one thing, mariners consider it bad luck to change the name of a boat, which is why if you're going to do it, you better do it right.

Henceforth, Miss Vicious will be known as MOONFISH.

The Moonfish is a round fish, deep as it is long. Not a schooling fish. Prefers its solitude. Old time fishermen used to consider a good luck fish. Instead of selling them, they would give them away as a gesture of good will. Mostly a Pacific and west Atlantic species, it is a rare breed for these parts.

An added bonus is that the fish is a member of the jack family. My grandfather was named Jack.

-seabgb

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

bob this pertain's to a comment about colby driscol and the jone's act. you are correct about him not being able to haul bait and lobster's but the story of why he no longer is in business is way More involved than that. Check around the rockland waterfront and i am sure you will get more info.