We chose the name Pineapple more than two years ago, and now we are this close to having a boat to bear the name: Our new Outbound 46 is on a container ship from China and will be arriving in Oakland in early August.
This is our first time naming a boat. When we bought our last boat, she came with a great name, Aegea, which we liked from the start. Aegea is short, it has a nautical spirit and, most uniquely, it’s a palindrome.
The palindrome is a pretty genius feature in a boat name, since one must keep their boat shipshape—trim, neat, and organized like a proper sailor. (Consider the tidy elegance of a Ralph Lauren ad versus the chaos of Captain Ron). Aegea fit the aesthetic perfectly. But, in keeping the original name, we missed a chance to give her our own. We even kept Starfire for our first boat, a 1981 Catalina 30. Such a terrible name… but we never bothered to do anything about it. We were only 24!
After batting around a few ideas, Pineapple stuck with us. We like that it’s whimsical, since we try not to take ourselves too seriously. And we like the associations with travel, adventure, and sailing. Here are some of our favorites:
- Hospitality. We are not planning to entertain constantly, but Pineapple will be our home, and we want to create a welcoming, comfortable environment. And yes, of course you can visit! We’ll be a hospitable crew too! Must love cats.
- Exploration. During the age of sail, pineapples were often brought home to Europe as tokens of discovery and exotic landfalls.
- Warm weather and tropical latitudes. Mai Tais. Tiki huts. Beaches. This one’s a bit obvious, but we like it!
Since we chose the name Pineapple, it has shown up everywhere as an icon. Did pop culture influence us, or did we influence pop culture? In the past week, I’ve seen pineapple wallpaper, countless pineapple fabrics, and more. At Sur La Table I saw an entire pineapple-themed outdoor entertaining collection. I managed to control myself and only bought a kitchen towel.
And, this is kind of embarrassing to admit… but this blog will be no good if I don’t open up, right? Last time John was out of town, I watched a documentary about Anthony Weiner. (I have the worst taste in movies.) His campaign had a code word for the Vegas stripper Weiner had phone sex with. You guessed it! Pineapple! Yeah, turns out it’s a symbol for lady parts too.
No, that is not on the list of why we chose the name! But sigh, our boat is a girl, so I guess it’s fitting. I actually found a pretty cool article about it.
One of our projects in the spring was a logo for the boat. So we enlisted the help of our talented friend Nikki Will. Our vision was “vintage tropical resort,” and she obviously nailed it! We love our new Pineapple logo. 
Now we just need to get this boat into some warm water…
—Michelle