Why “Pegu Club”?

One of the questions we get asked is why we named our boat “Pegu Club.”

According to Wikipedia, the Pegu Club was a famous gentleman’s club in Rangoon that served British officers and civilian administrators after the annexation of Upper Burma in 1885. It’s also a cocktail – 1.5 oz gin, 1/2 oz Cointreau, 3/4 oz lime juice, and a dash of angostura bitters.

But we didn’t know any of this until we went into the Pegu Club on West Houston Street during one of our trips to NYC. The Pegu Club is a cocktail lounge that kicked off the New York cocktail craze when it opened in the mid-2000s. It’s a great place – good music, relaxed vibe – we’ve never been disappointed whenever we’ve gone there.

We were at the Pegu Club one fall evening after we had finished our first season of sailing – but before we had bought our first boat – when Jeff said, “Some day if we ever have a boat, we should name it the “Pegu Club.” It was unique, it was a place that we liked – it was a great idea.

And so we did. After we bought our Bristol 24, there was never any doubt that she was “Pegu Club.”  When we bought our Bristol 29.9, we briefly debated coming up with another name, but nothing felt as right as Pegu Club so we decided to stick with what works.

And yes, the Pegu Club is my drink of choice when we are relaxing on the boat after a sail.