A tontine is an investment scheme for raising capital, devised in the 17th century and relatively widespread in the 18th and 19th. It combines features of a group annuity and a lottery. Each subscriber pays an agreed sum into the fund, and thereafter receives an annuity. As members die, their shares devolve to the other participants, and so the value of each annuity increases. On the death of the last member, the scheme is wound up. In a variant, which has provided the plot device for most fictional versions, on the death of the penultimate member the capital passes to the last survivor. See Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tontine.
That, my friends, is the name of our - new to us – sailboat, a 1980 Catalina 30. Actually, I really like this name and think it rather clever for the right owner (or, more appropriately, joint owners); however, Suzi and I found it a bit depressing and in no way the right name for our boat. It also makes "early" retirement less appealing. Ha! And, from everything that I have read about sailboats, I expect it to be the opposite of an investment strategy ... I think a disinvestment strategy is more likely. So, we set about coming up with a new name. After some fun banter, we quite agreeably settled on MoQuila, the name of a restaurant we found and grew fond of while traveling in Boca Raton, FL (fairly easy to surmise what the main ingredient is in the restaurant's drink specialties). So I designed and then ordered custom vinyl boat lettering from BoatU.S.
It took Suzi and me the better part of a Saturday to install the lettering (including lots of cussing and a few cocktails), but I am extremely happy with the final outcome. The following morning we had our renaming ceremony. It was private affair shared by just the two of us (the kids were not all that excited about waking up early on a Sunday morning). Without further adieu, I am proud to introduce MoQuila...
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