Give Her a Name

They say it's bad luck to change a boats name... but the Dorsett has never been named, so we get to name her!

With any good name the goal is to reflect the boat's and/or the owner's personality. In fact I may have bought a boat just so I could name it. The little Dorsett will be named Whisky Tango.

For those of you who are familiar with NATO code Whisky Tango represents the letters W and T. The urban dictionary lists Whisky Tango as an abstract spoken method to point out the presence of white trash to friends while still remaining unoffensive. Quite frankly, rolling a 50 year old 15 foot fiberglass runabout with a too loud and too smelly two-stroke motor in the Newport Beach harbor immediately puts you in the Whisky Tango category.

To complete the presentation, I wanted to add a little 60's nostalgia to the lettering. I chose the Magneto font that is designed from the lettering on the Chevy Belair. Also I wanted to add a little hot rod flair so I included the Clay Smith Cams "Mr. Horsepower" logo.

The Mr. Horsepower logo has become the unofficial "peckerwood" logo. Wikipedia says peckerwood is a slur used by southern whites to describe poor rural whites. The redheaded woodpecker as a representation of working class whites. They considered them loud and troublesome like the bird, and sometimes with red hair like the woodpecker's head plumes.

As a happy coincidence, the 60+ Scott McCulloch 60/75Hp motors are often referred to as the "red head" motors because the block of the motors are painted red. Perfect!

Update August 2017... please be aware the name Whisky Tango and the Clay Smith logo are in no way a political or racist statement and should not be construed as such. The name is intended to be a self-deprecating statement about the social class of this little boat in comparison to the many beautiful large and expensive boats with which we are privileged to share our harbour. There is simply no place for bigotry, discrimination, and hate. Now more than ever we must stand together against hatred and violence.