Name this boat

Help us pick out a name for Sound Rivers’ brand new Bay Rider!

Sound Rivers has a new boat, and we need your help naming it!

Thanks to your April Match generosity and amazing support from the Smith Family Foundation, Park Boat Company in Washington, Bay Rider and some friends of Sound Rivers, your Riverkeepers will be out monitoring the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico in a new 2025 KenCraft Bay Rider Skiff 2060!

They’re excited. We’re excited.

But we need some help naming the new vessel, so we’re launching a boat-naming contest! The top prize gets bragging rights, accolades on our website, social media and print newsletter, some Sound Rivers swag and an outing on the Neuse or Tar-Pamlico with your Riverkeeper!

We’re counting on you to help us come up with a name that will make a splash!

contest info

CONTEST RULES

How the contest works

From now until June 20, we’re asking you to send us your best boat name by emailing info@soundrivers.org, commenting on our boat-naming contest social media posts or filling in the form at the bottom of this page. Please read the contest rules first!

On June 21, Sound Rivers staff will then pick five favorite names to move to the next level of the competition. Then, from June 23 to July 6, everyone can vote for their favorite name — whichever name gets the most votes WINS!

Now, 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, when voting starts a vote for the winning name will be a (miniscule) $5 a pop. Good news is, you can vote as many times as you like! (In fact, we encourage it!)

What if YOUR name wins?

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!

Frequently asked questions

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!

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.

Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman takes the Bay Rider for a test drive.

CONTEST RULES

Unfortunately, naming contests like these can get a bit out of hand — for example, in 2016, *Boaty McBoatface won the naming contest for a British polar research ship — so we’re setting up a few rules to steer potential boat-namers on the right course.

No use of the words “Neuse” or “Tar” or “Pamlico” or “Tar-Pamlico.” That may seem odd, but there’s good reason: the Bay Rider will be used equally on the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico, and we want to avoid the appearance of preferring one river over the other — we love both rivers!

No profanity. None. Or anything else that’s inappropriate. Keep it clean and respectful, please.

We might have a preference for mission-appropriate names. You can read our mission statement here, but don’t let that limit you!

Be fun ~ Be creative ~ Make a splash!

NAME THIS BOAT!

Fill out the form below to enter YOUR best boat name for the win! Make sure to write your boat-name suggestion in the comments section!

*Though Boaty McBoatface won in a landslide, the ship was ultimately named the Royal Research Ship (RRS) Sir David Attenborough. However, one member of its fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles was christened Boaty McBoatface.