Capt. Karl Anderson

Jimmy Buffett & Roy Merritt cook up a stunner of a catamaran.

This story first appeared in Marlin Magazine March 2024. Many thanks to Capt Vinnie LaSoursa and Last Mango Boatworks.

I suppose there are varying degrees of loving boats. Certainly growing up near the sea or having a heritage of seafaring people in your background doesn’t always guarantee that love, but in many cases it is the stock for the gumbo of a seafaring life. But when that love strikes, it can be so deeply ingrained that it is the greatest ingredient of a full life. To say Jimmy Buffett was a lover of boats cannot be taken lightly. 

Jimmy’s longtime fishing buddy, the accomplished writer and angler, Carl Hiaasen puts it into perspective, “When Jimmy wasn’t on stage, he was on the water — or heading full speed to the water. He paid as much attention to the details of his boats as he did to his songs. Every line had to be just right.”

Buffett was infected with a love of the sea and boats of all manor, so much so, he wanted to always live by the sea. He spent the majority of his time away from his musical pursuits on the water — either sailing, surfing, fishing or just messing about on his boats.

In a recent conversation with his sister Lucy Buffett, she spoke so glowingly of their childhood and the threads of growing up on the Gulf Coast that were woven into her brother’s love of boats and the sea which made up a great portion of the fabric of his life. 

With a grandfather from Nova Scotia who famously jumped out a window of his home at 13-years old becoming a runaway going to sea. He became a cabin boy on a sailing ship and the stories of his time at sea surely put dreams of the sea into his grandsons head. The sea calls many with her charms. Lucy recalls, “Our grandfather never returned home full time until he was in his 70’s. Our parents both worked in the Mobile, Alabama shipyards building big ships. This, along with the constant dream for us kids of having a house on the water that my parents couldn’t afford, were the seeds of life around the water that were planted in us.” 

As Lucy recounts, “The boating mythology has been in our family since we can remember because we spent allot of time on the Mississippi Gulf coast at our grandparents home. It was always a big preparation whenever Captain Buffett, our grandfather, who was a Merchant Mariner came home because he would have been gone for month’s and month’s. He came home with stories of where he had been — from all over the world. That’s the story of the song ‘The Captain and the Kid’, all of that is true.” 

She continues, “As kids our parents would rent a home for vacation on Mobile Bay or the beach and Daddy and Jimmy would rent motor boats. Then our parents had friends, the Kennedy Engine family of Biloxi, who had a 100’ wooden motoryacht, the “Mariner II.”  They would go on extended trips on the boat to Tampa and the islands out off the Mississippi coast. Jimmy and their oldest son got to go on one summer trip as bait boys. That was the first time Jimmy was introduced into that type of leisure boating. They also had a seaplane in the 1960’s and those experiences were something Jimmy talked about, ‘someday I’ll have one of those’. So I think these things along with the culture of the Gulf Coast to work hard and recreate hard on the water had a large impact on Jimmy. The first house Jimmy ever bought was for Jane, the second house was for my Mom & Dad and it was on the water. It was their dream as well, working at the shipyard to have a house overlooking the bay. Jimmy also bought Daddy his first boat, a 17’-Mako center console.”

Lucy lovingly recalls, “Jimmy was always going to have some sort of boat. In Key West in the mid to late ’70’s, it was the fascination of sailing — that romantic notion that led him to buy a little skiff with the first money he made. He then bought his first sailboat, the ‘Euphoria II’, so that curiosity for him lead to always having this bond with boats and being around the water. For him, there was no better place to be than living around the water. He always had that forward looking ability, ‘what’s on the horizon’ —  and he had the go to do it!”

Jimmy’s boat build

Years and many boats later, in 2006, during the time Buffett had his 42’ Rybovich “Last Mango” he began to bring it to the Merritt yard for annual service and maintenance, beginning what has been a long relationship with Merritt’s. Throughout the years there were several Buffett boats that frequently visited the yard for maintenance including the Rybovich, 33’ Freeman Catamaran, 42′ Freeman Cat project boat and even a sailboat (the only one to come into the yard) along with a host of support boats including a Hells Bay skiff and an Albury Brothers center console among others.

While still enjoying his 33’ Freeman wheelhouse boat, Buffett contracted Freeman to build a complete 42’ hull without a console installed. If you have been anywhere near the water with an interest in boats and have internet you certainly would have had to see at one point a vision of Jimmy’s that came to life. The 42’ Freeman with a walk-around cabin that was built and installed by Merritt’s, has gone viral several times over.

As the 42’ hull and deck were being built, along with his captain, Vinnie Lasorsa and Roy Merritt, the trio went to work on what Buffett wanted in this next boat, the 42’ Freeman project. Having years of experience with a vast assortment of power and sail boats, Buffett had a unique vision for what would suit his needs best for his use at that time. This boat brainstorming and scheming was nothing new for Buffett. 

As lifelong Buffett family friend and companion to Buffett, Jimbo Meador, the legendary Alabama waterman would tell me, “Jimmy was a brilliant guy, when it came to any kind of boat, electronics, navigation, he always had some kind of new idea as far as everything on the water, whether it was fishing or designing those concepts into the boats, he was always improving what he had.”

Utlizing the boat building and styling expertise of Merritt and the team of carpenters, glass crew, painters and mechanics the house was built and integrated into the Freeman with direction and hands on input from Buffett, Lasorsa and Roy Merritt.

Building a full scale mock up in wood on the shop floor at the Merritt’s 

yard gave Buffett a real gauge of scale and space to make the most out of everything they could do even laying down on the bunk to be sure he would be comfortable on his “camping out” fishing trips. Console layout was carefully executed to fit a host of the latest Garmin Marine electronics and vessel control systems. 

The cabin was designed for maximum storage, ample seating and included a dinette so Buffett, the always busy task master could work on his laptop and have a place to have a meal while aboard. All of this was accomplished while still honoring the walk-around layout and 360-degree fishability of the boat. 

The Merritt house was married to the hull and deck allowing for electrical, plumbing and other finish work to happen including the faux teak painted cabin walls and ceiling beams as well as tower install — blending old world classic boat feels with advanced composite construction and design. Freeman pulled the hull from the mold in January of 2019 and the boat left Merritt’s yard in July of 2019. Quite a task in a tight timeframe, but it shows the commitment and vision by all parties to get it done.  

Before all this building process, in 2009 his captain, Lasorsa, has an idea to give back and help veterans. Buffett, ever the idea man, promoter and philanthropist, encourages Lasorsa to start up Freedom Fighter Outdoors. With Buffett’s endorsement and his urging, they begin hosting events to take injured and wounded men and women veterans fishing from Florida and Long Island. Building FFO to four and five events a year has impacted lives beyond measure. This is all done in the spirit of giving back and improving as many lives as they could reach — a testament to the spirit and heart of both men.  

As is often the case, the boating disease for real boat lovers kicks in and the need for a bigger or another boat with more improvements and upgrades from the current boat comes along. The boat enthusiast in all of us keeps thinking and dreaming of the next thing and soon the bug to build a dream and create the desired platform triggers the need to build the project. 

This is the case with Buffett. So pleased is he with the 42’ Freeman catamaran and his Merritt house, he has Lasorsa set up a meeting with Roy Merritt once again. As those meetings typically go, Buffett, who loves a unique project, pleads his case of needing a bit more comfort, the need for a stand up head and shower, a stateroom with a proper berth for camping out and a larger salon, because it comes with a bigger boat that can handle a bit more weather.

He wants to stay with the catamaran hull platform with Mercury outboards. For an artist like he is, the creative process and building things, be they songs, albums, novels, broadway plays or boats are the things that fulfill his creativity. He is also looking to leave a legacy in the marine industry that he has been a vibrant participant in for the greater part of his life.

Now, the problem he has is Merritt, who has made a great success of his family business building top of the line world traveling sportfisherman for titans of industry and a host of discerning clients. What Buffett wants is not what Merritt builds. However, as Buffett recognizes, these two guys have something in common besides their friendship and boating relationship. They are both guys that have achieved great things in their respective industries. They have both kept pace with their audiences and figured out what they want and what they need. 

Buffett, with Lasorsa in tow puts on his best sales pitch and with a bit of arm twisting he cajoles the reluctant Merritt to begin a special project. But not just to build a boat. Buffett the philanthropist and marketer envisions a situation in the future where they start up a company that would build the boats and give back to the industry by having a technical school for training the marine trades of welding, carpentry, painting, electrical and the like to young folks and perhaps troubled kids with little prospects. 

He sees improving lives as a large part of the mission, this is the thoughtful, ambitious, caring Buffett at his best. Ultimately, he would have liked to have started a whole separate company in partnership with Merritt to build the boats and give the money back. The dropback works and he hooks Merritt, all of this was done old school with a handshake — no lawyers, no multi-page contracts, just two friends doing business.

The Boat

With the idea hatched and the basic parameters laid out, Merritt gets to work as he does with any new build. Having never done a catamaran hull, he enlists the services of Michael Peters firm to create the running surface hull design while he and his in-house team design the layout and practical operating functions of the boat. 

In order to satisfy the criteria for Buffett and have a fully functional rig with water maker, fuel capacity, generator, ice makers, livewells and a host of other components that fit and can be serviced all while and getting the look of a finely styled, classic boat, which is Merritt’s art, she grows to 56-feet with a 17-foot beam to get it all done. 

There are many other considerations during the development such as width of the walk-around, deck height off the water, tunnel height, major component placement in each hull, bow layout and seating, anchor locker and windlass configuration, flybridge layout and a host of manufacturing and assembly issues that need to be ironed out. The list goes on and on with Merritt and his team solving puzzles daily with input from Buffett. 

Designed to be powered with quad 600-horsepower Mercury Verado outboards for speed and reliability, the boat is certainly unique and looks to fill a niche in the industry that has been missed to date. For Buffett, the inherent fishablilty of the walk-around layout with a massive cockpit combined with her length and beam will make her a player on the bluewater. Her interior comforts with full size stateroom, large head with shower and spacious salon with galley, interior helm, settee, bar and large flatscreen TV make her an ideal weekender and commuter. Topped with a spacious flybridge the Buffett inspired 56 Merritt CAT is as much a trend setter as it is a practical fishing tool. 

With this boat, Jimmy Buffett the visionary set the table for his marine legacy. His trust and confidence in Merritt to build a quality boat is a testament to Merritt’s legacy and track record. With the great sadness of his passing, Jimmy Buffett’s dream will be realized as the boat is being built as he envisioned it and wanted for his personal use, knowing that others would also see the many benefits of such a boat. 

The treasured American writer, Thomas McGuane spent a vast amount of time with Buffett throughout their lives as collaborator, friend and brother-in-law. Perhaps starting in the early 1970’s fly fishing for tarpon in Key West, they have logged many hours in various boats of all manner in many places far and wide. I’d say he put it best when it comes to Buffett and his love of boats and the sea, “I think Jimmy loved every boat that was ever born. As his knowledge of boats expanded through a lifetime of thinking about them — building and acquiring them — a day inevitably came when a boat project outlived him. Rest in peace, Sailor.”