1961 Tripp Mercer

Sea Fever was built as a sloop configuration in 1960/1961 by Mercer Plastics Shipyards in Connecticut for a multi-millionaire, gentlemen, from Germany.  The marine architect was the world-famous boat designer and marine architect, William Tripp.  He designed the Mercer 44's before moving on to design sailboats for the Columbia line.  In fact, people will complement you on your Columbia when it is really a Mercer.  Tripp used the same sailboat design for his Columbia boats as for his Mercers.   The boat was built and sold for $283,000 in 1960.  It was sailed by the German gentleman in the Cape Cod area and won one of the New England to Bermuda sailboat races.  He had it built so that he and his wife could sail it around the world, but she became very sick so it was only sailed in Cape Cod and down the east coast and back.  It is a very sleek sailboat, being only 11'-8" wide at the beam (width), which makes it extremely fast.  It is 44.0' long (longer with the bow sprint by approximately 3.0') and it only draws about 3.0' of water, which makes it very easy to sail into shallow bays, harbors and river mouths for overnight stays.  It is made like no other sailboat with a hull of 3/4" solid fiberglass so it is not a laminated hull and cannot get any blisters between the laminations like most of the sailboats do.  It is one of the strongest boats made and extremely safe and solid in the high seas.   We have sailed it all over San Francisco Bay, and as the saying goes if you can sail in the Bay, you can sail anywhere in the world.  We bought from an insurance salesman, who sailed it for years with the original owner and at his deathbed bought the boat from him and moved it to the west coast, sailing out of Los Angeles.  We are the third owner of the boat, and we were very disappointed with the exterior conditions and the interior modifications the second owner made.   Consequently, when we trucked her to San Francisco, the Berkley boatyard, and their shop informed us that the hull, all through holes, deck and all the sailing items on the exterior of the boat were still in very good condition.  I still replaced all the rigging and the perimeter lifelines as well as had her fully sanded and put a triple coat of paint on her as well as the underwater coating systems.  All through hulls were replaced and updated.  She also has new sails and upsized stainless-steel rigging as well as a brand new 55HP Mitsubishi marine engine which has less that 40 hours on it.  The original owner brought over with him when he moved to America a Mercedes outboard engine which was a disaster to start and maintain.   Being an architect and working in the construction industry for over 63 years in construction management, estimating and project oversight, I lived aboard her for over 15 years.  Kelly and I sailed her around the Bay as well as Kelly joined me for long weekends and an occasional week here or there.  We both love the boat for sailing and a second home in the Bay, which gave us breaks from living in Sacramento, and recently went to San Carlos to see if we could find a rental berth to rent and to move her to in the Sea of Cortez.  My dream, but unfortunately the berthing cost in the Sea of Cortez is about the same as SF.