Denny Westerlund Won the First Prize in the Naming Contest

Denny Westerlund was born and raised in Holmsund, where he still lives. From his summer cottage in Holmsund, close to Umeå city, he can see the ferry. He has been to Vaasa many times and he made his first trip with the ferry “M/S Örnen”. Denny is today a happy pensioner. He worked for Volvo trucks for 44 years with various duties, most recently responsible of their communications. He has also worked there as a robot programmer, production manager and in the human resources department.

Lue suomeksi – Läs på svenska

Shipping close to his heart

Denny has a wife, 2 children and 2 grandchildren who occupy much of his life. But he has time for much else too. He is a member of the Board of “Seamen’s Friends”. He also participates in “Gubb” Meetings, that organizes events every two weeks with coffee and presentations. There he will have a presentation about the history of an oil painting that his father received from a sea captain in 1933 and which Denny then got when he was five years old. Shipping is close to Denny’s heart and he reads a lot about shipping. Already as a little boy he was playing in the harbor.

How did he come up with the name?

One day when he was home alone, Denny wanted to see how the construction of the new ferry was progressing and he went to Kvarken Link’s internet site. There he saw the competition and thought that he could give a suggestion. He leaned back and pondered which vessels were important to him in his life. A long time ago there was a ferry between Obbola and Holmsund. The ferries were named Eos1, Eos2 and Eos3. Eos means the goddess of the dawn in Greek. This inspired him. According to Roman mythology Aurora means the same. Thus, Denny’s proposal “Aurora Botnica” is Latin. “The name should mean something”, he thought. The final name given to the ferry by the shipping company is Aurora Botnia. “The sun and the light are coming from the east as well. It felt obvious that the ferry would have the name Aurora,” says Dennis Westerlund.

The first prize for the naming contest is a cruise on the maiden voyage at Aurora Botnia in May 2021.