Boaty McBoatface wins NERC poll to name £200M research vessel

It looks like Boaty McBoatface will be the name of the largest and most advanced British research vessel. The funny moniker has easily won the poll launched by the Natural Environment Research Council, though there’s no guarantee NERC will follow the people’s choice.

The British research council thought it was a good idea to involve the public in naming its newest boat last month. And instead of just letting the public choose among a few options, it asked them to give their best shot in naming the £ 200 million (AU$369 million) polar research vessel.

The poll received over 7,000 name suggestions, but one stood out from the rest. Thanks to former BBC presenter James Hand’s suggestion, the boat’s name could be RRS Boaty McBoatface.

The public quickly saw the humour in the tongue-in-cheek moniker and voted for it over other traditional names like RRS Henry Worsley, after the British explorer who died earlier this year, and RRS David Attenborough, the popular English broadcaster.

RRS McBoatface received 124,169 votes by the time the poll closed on Saturday. It’s a landslide victory, taking in four times more than second placer RRS Poppy-Mai (34,371 votes), which was suggested after a 16-month-old girl who died from cancer.

For his part, Hand was apologetic after seeing his little joke was taken very seriously by the voting public.

While it’s amusing to see a very expensive ship named haphazardly as such, the name isn’t final yet. NERC reserves the right on the final say over the name. Chief executive of NERC, Duncan Wingham, will choose between going with the overwhelming public opinion and going for a more respectable name.

Boaty McBoatface wasn’t the only questionable suggestion in the poll. The Name Our Ship survey also received humorous suggestions, including RRS Its Bloody Cold Here, RRS Usain Boat, RRS Boatimus Prime, RRS I Like Big Boats&! Cannot Lie, RRS RRS Nottetitanic and RRS Boat.

The new polar research vessel, which may or may not be named Boaty McBoatface, will be setting sail for Antarctica in 2019.

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