Rybovich: "The Fighting Lady"

There is a "Fighting Lady" at Sailfish Marina in Palm Beach shores, FL run by Capt Kip. Super guy and very nice boat. IIRC it's the namesake for "fighting lady yellow".

The Fighting Lady

Actually the Fighting Lady is a Merritt. When the Phipps family brought it to Dad's marina (Bill's Sailfish Marina) Harold Abbott was the captain.
Abbott was a big arrogant guy who thought being a Phipps captain should bring him special privilages. He soon found out otherwise when his attitude forced Dad to inform the Phipps that "If he stayed with the boat, the boat would have to find other places to dock".
Within days, Abbott was gone and Gary Stuve became captain.
The Phipps...a great family.

the yacht vergemere

Not familiar with the yacht vergemere the phipps had. How long ago was that?
I do know of the Buckpasser, captain is Larry Hastings, helluva nice guy that considers the old man (if he's still living) as close as his own Dad. Also, Jack Connors is on the boat.
It's a 78' (I think) steel hull with a helicopter pad. They would take it & the Fighting Lady to the Yucatan on trips.
Last time I saw the boat was at Fl Diesel Marine (dry dock). Larry showed me around, quite impressive.
BTW, I lived in CO for 4 years...Conifer & Littleton.
Been back in FL for 1 year after being gone for 15 years. Went to the Sailfish Marina which included Dad's marina (Bill's Sailfish Marina), the Sailfish Center & the 3 vacant lots next to Dad's...all one big marina now, completely re-done, and seems like a tourist attraction. All of the captains I knew are either dead or moved to different marinas. Only boat that's still there when Dad sold is the Fighting Lady.

bill's ''friendly'' marina

as I recall.....the fighting lady now at the marina was the original fighting lady....an andy mortison about 48'...this boat was too big and too slow to fish for tuna over in the bahamas which young ''dinny''phipps enjoyed ....he had a smaller andy [37'] built, and that boat came to bill's to charter fish,as dinny only used the boat in the spring...

the original 48' andy,i believe,became the miami based ''station break'' and then the palm beach based ''topaz''....now she is at the sailfish marina painted ''fighting lady yellow'',a color concocted by gary stuve,to paint the 37' one year...i ran into the 37' up in md.[kent is.] and there was talk of restoring her, but she was in bad shape.....dinny phipps went on to build 2 43' merrits ,also called ''fighting lady...

mr.phipps owned the ''vergemer'' a 118' defoe [capt. fingers o'bannon]...this boat was sold to ralph evinrude and his wife francis langford ,and was kept at stuart during the winters..it was called ''chanticleer''...i last saw this boat on the sassafras river md about 2000

mr phipps then built the burger ''buckpasser''[98'?]and used this boat w/ the fishboat tagging along for many trips.....in the mid 80's the phipps had a yard in japan build a new ''buckpasser''[120'] which the family still enjoys...

the burger was also sold to f.langford, again named the ''chanticleer'' and was lengthen to 105'

if you google ..fighting lady charters....their website has a photo of the boat that was the one you were referring to...she was 44'

Clarification

This post is about 9 months old so I'm sure nobody cares but came across it and thought I'd add in my 2 cents.

SeniorSalty is pretty much correct.

The 1963 Andy Mortensen was the Original "Fighting Lady" built for Ogden Phipps. Phipps later built a 43 Merritt and kept the name "Fighting Lady", both hulls were painted fighting lady yellow.

Until a month ago the Andy was a charter boat at Sailfish Marina in Palm Beach, it is now chartering out of Blowing Rocks Marina in Jupiter (same name, color and contact info). The Merritt is now painted green (sea foam green I believe). The awgrip paint was named after Merritt even though it wasn't the "Original" Fighting Lady.

-Capt. Kip Jr. Fighting Lady Sportfishing www.fightingladysportfishing.com

Hi,

Welcome to Yacht Forums.

As the original post as wacky as it is was made on 02-02-08 I guess the post you just made is very close to 2.5 yrs after that one not just 9 months.

I wouldn't worry though, a resurrected post with good accurate information like you just posted is always good and welcomed by most of the contributors to this thread who I assume are still with us as some at least seem to post fairly regularly elsewhere on YF.

it was a merritt not a Rybovich

the 3rd & 4th Fighting Ladies where Merrits .....#1 & 2 were Andy boats....the first one to move into Bill's Marina was the #2 Andy, a 37 '
.....

Great clarification, what is the Andy (Mortenson?) story, not very much discussion on those boats.

They were built on the Miami river. My dads friend owned their last boat. They weren't fast. Problem was they built a few boats with wood that had termites in it due to where the wood was stored.

I finally found some people who remember that the Phipps-owned Andy Mortensen of circa 44-feet named FIGHTING LADY had, in the early 1960s, a light blue hull.

My only quibble with what has been said here is with her build date being pegged at 1963.

I say this because I am fairly certain that she arrived in Gloucester in 1961 to fish in the Cape Ann Tuna Club annual Tuna tournament. It was notable at the time, and memorable for me, as she was one of two "Florida boats" that showed up for what had thus far been conducted as more of a regional derby.

The other "Florida boat" that entered was Dorothea Dean's 42-foot Norseman, NEFERTITI. Both tied up at what was then the Rocky Neck Sportfishing Dock. tournament headquarters.

There was quite a buzz within the local tuna fleet about the appearance of these two beautiful and highly appointed sportfishing boats, with rumors abounding that they were armed with a "secret weapon", i.e., Mullet, for bait.

The tournament start, actually from the INNER Gloucester harbor, was a spectacle -- they "floored the motors", as my brother recorded in his journal, and I vividly recall those big Florida boats with their twin gasoline engines (probably 275 h.p. each) generating what seemed to us massive boat wakes and huge rooster tails.

The question is: who the heck is still around, or has any evidence, to confirm that the boat was built earlier than the 1963 date?

The consensus here seems to have it that these are the four "Dinny" Phipps-owned boats named FIGHTING LADY.

1st FIGHTING LADY circa 44-foot Andy Mortensen, light blue, then yellow (later STATION BREAK: then TOPAZ)

2nd FIGHTING LADY 37-foot Andy Mortensen, first of the four with a yellow hull

3rd FIGHTING LADY 43-ft Merritt

4th FIGHTING LADY 43-ft Merritt

Is the Andy Mortensen in the photo below the original FIGHTING LADY, as she looks to be about the right size, is yellow (as would be her color later), and what is partially discernable on the transom suggests the original name?

Climb on the bridge and look at the steering wheel...it should say Fighting Lady , if it hasn't been replaced.

saltysenior:

I can't do that right now, but you sound authoritative enough to me to take your word for it.

When you write your autobiography, you can give it one of those titles like, "HELL, I WAS THERE!"

It is curious that when you google Ogden Mills ("Dinny") Phipps, a number of vocations come up, financier, horse breeder, philanthropist, but nothing I have yet seen about a passionate pursuit of fishing for sport.

He had one and did it , but quietly.....