This boat is the result of a tremendous rapport between Dick Newick, the designer, and Phil Weld, the skipper.

Phil came to see Dick and said: “Design me a boat to win the OSTAR!”
The two men knew and appreciated each other so well that it was “simple” for Dick to design — almost as if for his own use — a custom-built boat, perfectly suited to the future winner.

“Moxie,” the boat’s original name, is a powerful drink (made from herbs with a recipe that is carefully kept secret) that is still produced in the United States today. The story behind the name is rather amusing.

One evening, D. Newick, P. Weld and several friends had gathered to find a name for the boat that was about to be launched. Late into the night, when their brainstorming was proving fruitless and Phil was leaving to head home, one of the cheerful companions called out: “Have moxie!” — wishing Phil good luck in his venture.

In the slang of the northeastern United States, where the boat was born, “have moxie” means to have guts, to have drive, to have fighting spirit — or quite simply to have balls.

And so Moxie it remained.