Trumpy Yachts

In 1910, a young Norwegian named John Trumpy joined the Mathis Yacht Building Company as a partner and designer. He designed boats under the Mathis name until, in 1943, he became sole owner and renamed the company, John Trumpy and Sons.

He continued his career as a builder and designer and created some of the world’s most beautiful wooden yachts. He was already successful in the business when he took over having designed among others, the 104′ Yacht “Sequoia” launched in 1926, that in 1931 became the official Presidential Yacht for Herbert Hoover and every President through Jimmy Carter, who sold it. See more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Sequoia_(presidential_yacht)

We found Sequoia dry docked in Deltaville, VA, right next door to our marina.  She is involved in some contentious litigation involving ownership and price and in the meantime is deteriorating in this shipyard.  It is sad to see the former “floating whitehouse” in this condition.  Apparently, it has only recently been shrink wrapped because a family of raccoons was found inhabiting the yacht.

John Trumpy and Sons went on to create some 400 more beautiful wooden yachts for some of the world’s wealthiest people. But as wooden boats go, they don’t last forever. It is said that there are only 40 left.

Since we have been cruising the east coast, we have encountered 5 of the 40 Trumpy’s left, including Sequoia.

Our first sighting was Lady Catherine, a 1947 60′ houseboat style yacht currently under charter for approx. $11,000 per week plus fuel. How much can that be???

We saw Lady Catherine at Palm Coast. FL last fall.

We ran into our next Trumpy in Annapolis this spring and she is named Wishing Star.

We mentioned in an earlier post having dinner in Annapolis at The Chart House.  The primary shipyard for John Trumpy and sons.  While not a Trumpy sighting, certainly another encounter.

Next, our most intimate encounter was with Madisongrace, a 1958, 57 foot flush deck cruiser, sitting right here in Fishingbay Marina.  After our morning walkabout, and seeing the Sequoia under wraps, we saw Madisongrace sitting on the end of our dock.  We had seen her come in late one evening just before an impending storm.  We had already had a few short discussions with her owners but didn’t know their boat was a Trumpy until we got up close to her and saw the distinctive “t” scrollwork.  Her owner just happened to be there and was thrilled we could identify the brand of his yacht.  We got a full history and tour of the boat.

She is in the process of being fully restored after a former owner took some liberties with her original design.  Blue latex paint was on the walls of both staterooms and on the black walnut built-in dressers.  The mid-century design of one the dressers that Bobbi had fully restored was truly a piece of art!!  Stunning.  They have a long way to go to get her back to her original glory but they are obviously in love with this boat.  They have the most of the original furniture in their garage in New Jersey.  We also were invited for evening cocktail hour so we learned even more of their plans and those of another boater, Scott,  on a beautiful early 1970’s, 41″ Tartan. A nice evening but we may have only been invited because Donovan and Bobbi “took a liking” to Miss Coconut!!!

Unbelievably, yesterday, while touring small nearby towns by vehicle, we ran into another Trumpy boat in Urbanna, VA.  Adonia was tied up at the City Marina.  Her bow was covered by a large sunscreen so it was tough to get a good picture but she was a beauty.   She was another design, a 60′ houseboat style and seemed to be in pristine condition.

Of course, all of these meetings with Trumpy yachts gets a person doing a bit of searching.  We can buy a fully restored sister ship to Madisongrace, a 1958, flush deck cruiser for $159,000–she’s in New Orleans……..