Soveraine

By Sailor Keddy -

I went back and forth for a long time trying to decide on an appropriate name for this boat. I first toyed with family names, such as Andrew for my departed cousin and Beatrice for my Grammy. Neither of these would work though, just too close to home. I then thought of past loves, and deemed none of them appropriate either.

Bernard Moitessier, my favorite sailor and author of all time ever, had named his boat Joshua after his favorite sailor Joshua Slocum. Could I name my boat Bernard? I mean, if such a great sailor could give his boat a masculine name, then I surely could as well. I thought I had made up my mind, but I just couldn't shake the thought of my boat not being feminine. I decided I would sail her first to truly let her make my mind up. And after the trip from Watch Hill to Newport, I knew it had to be a lady.

But what could the name be? I thought I'd try and incorporate what my goals with this boat are: self-sufficiency. I found a thesaurus and the word sovereignty came up. I liked that word, for a nation it means controlling resources without the coercion of other nations. On an individual level it means having the liberty to decide one's own thoughts and actions. Perfect. Google translator came up with Summus. Hmmm...way too close to Sumurun and still too masculine. So I looked to the etymology of sovereignty and found it comes from an old, old French word (like from 1100) soverain. The female form of which is soveraine.

So, the name is French as a tip of the hat to Mr. Moitessier. It is feminine and almost has a name-like quality to it while still keeping the meaning of autonomy.

Soveraine, hailing from Newport.

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