What's in a Name?
THE near DEATH AND RE BIRTH
OF A
1979 HUNTER 37 CHERUBINI CUTTER
HUNTER 37 CUTTER
The year was 1969. It was a good year.
We left Tangier in 1965 after the French and Spanish governments returned Morocco to be an independent country. My parents had lived in Tangier for 45 years, my mother a Spanish government nurse and my French-Italian father owned a metal fabrication/wrought iron company.
My father's family relocated to Nice, France. Since my mother was Spanish and did not like french people (go figure) we moved to Madrid, Spain.
Now fast forward to 1969. We owned a Cafeteria named Torres Blancas in Madrid. My father sat in his favorite corner, reading the latest edition of France-Soir and sipping his glass of Armagnac, gazing over the busy waiters when I came in with my girlfriend du jour. An American red headed with green eyes I had met several month before. She was a student at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Her name was Bonner Lynn. She was given the name of a family friend, David Bonner, and made the name more feminine by adding Lynn to it.
Dad, I want to introduce you to Bonner, I said. My father looked at me and said in french Bonheur??. No, Bonner I said. Bonheur he said. Well Bonheur it is. In french, Bonheur means happiness and who was I to argue. So, from then on, my dad called her Bonheur. He took a liking to her and they communicated well, he in french and spanish and she in broken spanish. They both shared a love of spanish classic painters and writers.
43 years and two kids later, when time came to name this boat, I did my research on boat names. From the double entendre to the mythical, they ran the gammut. I always thought it was silly to name a boat after your wife or daughter, but I remembered Bonner,s nickname and after all the most happy times I have spent lately have been rebuilding this boat, therefore, Bonheur or Happiness is a well deserved name.
She also thinks I named it after her ;-)
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
