What’s in a name?

It’s now official. AMANZI is born.

We mentioned in an earlier log that we wanted to rename our boat. She was lovingly built and launched with the name Windborn for 14 years. However, with the change in ownership, we wanted something that was personal to us.
Our previous boat was named Meggie, after David’s mother. The new owners of Meggie loved her name and did not want to give it up. So, we had to come up with another name. Coming up with a new name is a big job. You have to say it over and over again to make sure it can be clearly understood. It has to suit the boat and it has to be easy to read when looked at by others. After a great deal of searching, debate and brainstorming with friends, we settled on the name Amanzi. It is the one word everyone knows in southern Africa, no matter what language is spoken. Amanzi. It is Zulu for water – we all need it to survive.

Can’t live without water, can’t live without Amanzi.

Because the floating classroom expedition will be travelling to international ports, we thought it would be best to register our boat as a Canadian ship. This required checking to ensure that there was no other boat named Amanzi in Canada. We applied to the Government of Canada to register the vessel and after 2 months we received a letter informing us that the name AMANZI was approved. As part of the requirement of owning a registered vessel, the name must be placed on both the bow and stern (front and back).

Now that we have the old name removed, hopefully there is enough time to put the new name on before launch, which is next weekend. Until next time…