FRESH START

In offshore fishing circles, the 42-foot Merritt is instantly recognizable. The design combines a seaworthy hull and timeless good looks with the critical elements needed for big-game fishing. And the best of the best covet these boats because they were purpose-built for catching big fish.

Few older sportfishing boats have the bones and receive the care required to survive 50 years of hard fishing. That cannot be said of the Merritt 42 Picaflor—Merritt hull No. 18—which launched in the spring of 1969. She has been updated and maintained throughout her illustrious career because she has that special something, a pedigree instilled by her builder.

Few boats have caught the number of big fish that Picaflor has. She’s fished the Atlantic and Pacific, as well as the Caribbean. Seven of the sport’s most distinguished captains have manned her helm. She’s had International Gamefish Association Hall of Fame anglers in her fighting chair, set world records and won tournaments. And that’s just a sliver of her storied history.

THE ORIGINAL BUILD

A young Roy Merritt stood alongside an overturned 42-foot hull in the fall of 1968. He was learning the boatbuilding trade from his uncle, Buddy Merritt, and the talented crew at his grandparent’s modest yard, Merritt’s Boat and Engine Works in Pompano Beach, Florida.

Roy and the crew had recently completed a 42-footer for him and his father,—the name of all Merritt family boats—was the yard’s 17th hull. Merritt 34-, 35- and 37-footers had established quite a reputation on the bluefin tuna grounds of Cat Cay and Bimini in the Bahamas during the 1950s and ’60s. The lion’s share of that was earned by brothers Buddy and Allen Merritt, who were relentless in their quest to rule Tuna Alley, a 15-mile stretch of shallow water and white sand off Cat Cay, which is a migration route for bluefin tuna.