Sailing Story: Sergio Mercado

Sergio Mercado was drawn to sailing young. 

“I was 14 or 15 years old but I didn’t know anything, I was just a passenger but it amazed me, you know, the way the wind could move the boat,” Sergio said about his introduction to sailing in Puerto Rico on his great uncle’s boat. “It caught my attention.”

When Sergio left Puerto Rico in 1985, it only took him a few years to find his way back to sailing in the continental U.S. He went sailing with a coworker in 1991 and not long afterwards, found a sailing club to join in Long Beach, California. However, it wasn’t until years later that Sergio’s wife brought him back to her hometown lake and Sergio fell in love with the Flathead. 

“In 2007 she brought me here and I saw the lake,” he said. “I was speechless.”

This wasn’t the only connection Sergio made in 2007 to Flathead Lake. Sergio also serendipitously met Captain Genevieve in Boise that year.

“She doesn’t remember but I met her in 2007 down there in Boise at the sailing club down there. She started sailing and already had plans as a captain,” Sergio said. “She used to race cars back then, she took me for a ride in the car and then I didn’t see her ever again until I came back here.”

Since visiting Flathead Lake in 2007, Sergio had been dreaming of returning to the lake. 

“I said someday I’ll be there,” he explained. “And then in 2020 I retired and I made it happen!”

To Sergio, the sailing opportunities on Flathead Lake are magical. 

“I love it here, this is paradise,” he said. “There’s wind here, there’s no wind down there,” Sergio said about what makes the sailing better on Flathead Lake than the Boise Reservoirs. “Here you have the thermals in the mornings and in the afternoons while down there […] they like to sail in the middle of the day when there is no wind and when the wind [starts blowing] they like to go have a potluck,” Sergio laughed.  

In the summers, Sergio sails 3-4 times a week on the Flathead, starting around 11am and staying out on the water until 3pm or so. And if you ask Sergio, every one of those days is a great sailing day. 

“As long as there is wind, I’m happy about it,” he said. What makes a good sail day is that, “I’m in the boat, the boat’s moving.”