45' Tellefsen Ketch (1948) - MORNING STAR

Morning Star is a Scandinavian style double ended ketch, custom designed and built in 1948 by Norwegian Naval Architect Olaf Tellefsen. She is planked with 1 3/8” Port Orford cedar over steam bent white oak frames on 12” centers, is 51 feet overall, 45 feet on deck, has a 40 foot waterline, 6’ 10” draft, ~25 ton displacement and carries 1200 sq. ft. of sail.

Launched in 1948 (as Evening Star), she was commissioned by Walter and Katy Maertens, who were one of the six founding commodore couples of the Seven Seas Cruising Association. They lived aboard in Glorietta Bay in San Diego for nearly 30 years. Every winter they cruised to Mexico, Central America and the Galapagos Islands. Summers often found them cruising the Channel Islands. The letters home of their cruising adventures and encounters with other early cruisers, like Eric and Susan Hiscock, were the inspiration for the SSCA bulletin. This is from the SSCA website:

“The founders of SSCA were six live aboard couples whose boats were berthed in Coronado, California: the Carstarphens, Shellback; the Maertins, Evening Star; The Minors, Tropic Bird; the Nissens, Norwind; the Rumseys, Black Dolphin; and the Slasors, Stardust. When Evening Star and Tropic Bird went cruising and sent back reports of their experiences to the remaining four, their letters were copied and sent to an ever-widening circle of live aboard cruising friends. Thus the concept of the Bulletin was born.”

Based on conversations with Ginny Filiatrault and Ray Quint of SSCA who both knew the Maertens, we believe Morning Star is one of only two remaining vessels of the original six live aboard SSCA boats (the other one is Black Dolphin at The Harbor School of Hong Kong) and the only one still actively cruising.

Morning Star has sailed over 225,000 miles on voyages to Mexico, South America, the South Pacific, New Zealand, Hawaii, Alaska, Canada and the US West Coast. Her most recent cruising includes multi-year voyages from Port Townsend via San Francisco, the Channel Islands, San Diego, Hawaii, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, and Alaska. Morning Star is a magnificent comfortable live aboard ocean voyaging vessel.

Morning Star is currently in the Pacific Northwest and is available for viewing upon request.