After years of daydreaming about owning a sweet BCC, I now am the lucky owner of BCC hull #107. Originally, she was named Little Wing with an impressive nautical pedigree of having sailed from Washington State to New Zealand and from Connecticut to the Bahamas and then BVIs. Along the way her name was changed to Rocinante, meaning old workhorse in Spanish. However, Little Wing seems like the right name for her. I am excited to join the BCC and FCC communities. The amount of information shared on the Sam L. Morse forums is amazing. I look forward to keeping the conversation going about these wonderful sailing vessels on the forum.
I also look forward to meeting other BCC and FCC owners via the forum or in person. Hopefully, we can get together at a rendezvous event one of these days.
Looking forward to learning from all of you about your experiences with these mystical boats.
The name breaks down to Rocin + ante, where ante = ahead, in front of; and rocin/rozin was the equivalent of ‘workhorse’. So ‘Rocinante’ literally is the old nag in front of you. Or your ‘foremost steed’, depending on how you think.
And the point of the name is Cervantes chose Rocinante as for Don Quixote’s steed. One idea developed in the book was that the horse was the alter ego of its rider or that the rider was the alter ego of his steed.
So it’s a reference to the relationship of you to (in this case) your boat. Your BCC reflects your nature. You reflect the nature of a seaworthy BCC (in contrast to a lightweight cruiser-racer etc).
Wikipedia has an article that unpacks most of the meanings and connotations of the name: Rocinante - Wikipedia
I’ve met a handful of cruisers and their Rocinantes (in at least once case the orthograpy was Rozinante). Quite a neat name, I always thought.
I agree that Rocinante is a neat name, and a popular one among many boat owners.
Another reason for the name change has to do with transmitting information via the two-way radio. Boat names with more than two syllables can be difficult when transmitting on the radio for the receiver to catch.
