elvis costello – Voilier 'HIR 3'

In English and many other languages, a ship is called a ’SHE’, but even in countries where this is not the case, boats usually carry women’s names… She (a boat) needs constant care and attention and in return, occasionally you can experience great pleasures with her:)

One prosaic explanation is that the gender of the Latin word for “ship” — Navis — is feminine. But people generally agree on the more romantic notion of the ‘ship as a she’ phenomenon: that it stems from the tradition of boat-owners, typically and historically male, naming their vessels after significant women in their lives — wives, sweethearts, mothers. Similarly, and more broadly, ships were once dedicated to goddesses, and later also to mortal women of national or historic significance, thereby bestowing a benevolent feminine spirit on the vessels that would carry seafarers across treacherous oceans. Figureheads on the prows of ships were often depictions of such female namesakes, denoting the name of the ship for a largely illiterate maritime population. (Source: Glossophilia)

It is often asked why a ship is called a “she”.
The answer is simple:
there is usually a gang of men about her;
it takes an experienced man to handle her correctly, and a lot of paint to keep her look good;
and without a man at the helm, she is absolutely uncontrollable.
She shows her topsides, hiders her bottom and, when coming into port, always heads for the buoys. it is not the initial expense that breaks you, it is the upkeep.

Yacht design, as carried on at present, is rather like making love to a woman. The approach is completely empirical. At the end, the male, even though he might be successful, usually had no idea of just how and why he had succeeded. – PROF. E.J.RICHARDS