Boat name finalists

Vote for your favorite from now until July 6!

VOTING HAS STARTED!

We asked you to help us name Sound Rivers’ new 2025 KenCraft Bay Rider Skiff 2060, and WOW! did you come through!

A total of 124 names were submitted, and Sound Rivers’ staff voted for their favorites. Now, we’ve got the TOP 5, and YOU can help picking the winning name! Voting ends on July 6, so get your vote in!

And the Top 5 Finalists are…

Al G. Bloom

RIPARIANNE

The Tide Turner

River Creeper

Sound Hound

sCROLL DOWN TO VOTE!!

A deeper dive into the finalists

Here’s little explanation about the Top 5 finalists, in case it’s needed.

Al G. Bloom

Some fitting tongue-in-cheek humor with this one, as algae blooms are one of the many issues affecting the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico. The Bay Rider will certainly be used to investigate algae blooms in the coming years!

RIPARIANNE

Another play on words, this time on the word riparian, meaning “relating to or situated on the banks of a river” or “relating to wetlands adjacent to rivers and streams.” RIPARIANNE also looks and sounds like a woman’s name, a historical and cultural reference to the personification of ships as nurturing and protective entities and their association with goddesses and female figures in mythology.

The Tide Turner

This boat name references the metaphor “turn the tide,” which is of naval origins, referring to tides’ great effect on a ship’s course. The phrase itself means a significant and positive reversal of a situation, often moving from a disadvantageous or negative state to a more favorable one — apropos in today’s climate.

River Creeper

Another play on words, this time on the term “Riverkeeper” — of which Sound Rivers has two, and they’ll be both be piloting the Bay Rider on their respective rivers! Also, “River Creeper” implies stealthily keeping an eye on the waterways …

Sound Hound

This one has a lot of stuff going on! It incorporates Sound — a reference to Sound Rivers and a waterbody into which both the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico flow — while hound evokes a dogged approach or relentless pursuit. And since the other Sound Rivers boat is named “Water Dog,” it’s a play on that name, making a matching pair: “Water Dog” = “Sound Hound.”

Fill out the form* below to cast YOUR vote to name Sound Rivers’ new 2025 KenCraft Bay Rider Skiff 2060!

Since we ARE a nonprofit, and we DO need to outfit the new boat with new equipment, buy gas, and provide for all the expenses that come with boat ownership, we’ve made this boat-naming contest into a fundraiser. Good news is, votes are only $5 a pop, and you can vote as many times as you like! (In fact, we encourage it!)

*Note: the form below makes it easy to vote as many times as you like, but uses the term “tickets” instead of “votes,” so, in effect, one ticket = one vote.

Frequently asked questions

It’s a boat-naming fundraiser, and boat-owning is not inexpensive. It’s said that you can expect to spend 10% of your boat’s value on maintenance every year.

The other reason is because asking voters to spend $5 per vote will hopefully translate to people voting meaningfully, rather than frivolously. Good news is, you can vote as many times as you like! (In fact, we encourage it!)

As part of our licensing agreement with Waterkeeper Alliance, Riverkeeper organizations are required to have a vessel for the river they monitor and protect. Since Sound Rivers covers both the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico, we have two boats: a Triumph (named Water Dog) that resides in the upper part of the watersheds and now the Bay Rider for the lower Neuse and Tar-Pamlico.

But really, having a boat allows your Riverkeeping team to get out on the water to investigate reports of water-quality issues that are regularly called or emailed in. It also gives them the opportunity to get to know their waterways thoroughly — you can’t really know a body of water unless you’ve spent plenty of time on that body of water.

Because Sound Rivers had old boats, and those old boats were proving themselves unreliable. There’s nothing like being stranded on the water for a few hours when all you had planned to do was check out a report of an algal bloom.

A new boat gives our Riverkeeping team the confidence to drop the boat in, check out issues on the water and pull the boat back out without having to worry about (or experience) potential problems. The peace-of-mind factor is especially important if they’ve invited media or local officials aboard to give them a state-of-our-waterways tour.

Sound Rivers’ previous boats (a Grady-White donated by the Smith family to the Pamlico-Tar River Foundation two decades ago and a Trophy), served the organization well, and Park Boat Company was kind enough to allow a trade-in as part of the terms for the new Bay Rider.

Again, as part of the licensing agreement with Waterkeeper Alliance, we are required to put Riverkeeper signage on the sides of the boat, so they’re already taken, and the stern is not. Great news is that when the boat is trailored and being driven to “the other river,” whoever’s behind or passing it will definitely get an eyeful!

First and foremost, you get bragging rights! We’ll also be bragging on you in our weekly eNews, on social media and in our print newsletter!

In addition to the fame, you’ll get some Sound Rivers SWAG: a copper-insulated water bottle, T-shirt and baseball cap.

AND, you’ll get a 30-minute cruise with your Riverkeeper in the newly named boat: your choice whether it’s on the Neuse with Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop or on the Tar-Pamlico with your Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman!

We’d like to thank the Smith Family Foundation, Park Boat Company in Washington, Bay Rider and some friends of Sound Rivers and YOU for making this possible! Because of you, your Riverkeepers will be out monitoring the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico in a new 2025 KenCraft Bay Rider Skiff 2060!