Motor_Sailor
Well-Known Member
Perhaps not as well known in the UK, but Charlie Morgan, one of the great yacht designers has died.
Charlie was probably the man who discovered in the late 60s, the notion that boats, especially those aimed at the emergent charter market, could sell themselves from the inside out. Comfort, space, huge ice boxes, showers and double berths all had marketable appeal to a world where not every sailor was obsessed by windward performance, anchors or being rolled 360° in a storm. I was asked to deliver one of his Out Island 41s back from the Philippines in 1979, but I turned it down as it was 'incomprehensible' to me having been brought up on the British idea of that time, about what a 'proper' cruising boat should be. (I took a Nicholson 32 instead!). But they sold by the thousands and stayed in production well into the 90s.
And Charlie made money from designing and building boats (and that's not easy!). So much money when he sold Morgan Yachts, that he was able to fund his own campaign to defend the America's Cup. He designed, built and helmed the 12M Heritage but lost out in the defender trials to Intrepid.
His life in boat designing, building and sailing continued at break-neck speed. I didn't work with him until he was well into his 70s and he was still going flat out. He had been involved in designing trawler yachts for a while in later life and we built a few in aluminium. He would fly himself up to the boatyard every other Friday, check progress in the morning and iron out any niggles, then enjoy a fairly lengthy lunch and regale us with stories of a life well lived, before flying himself home in the evening.
It's not everyone you meet in life whose memory is enough to make you smile and chuckle. But Charlie was one.
Charlie was probably the man who discovered in the late 60s, the notion that boats, especially those aimed at the emergent charter market, could sell themselves from the inside out. Comfort, space, huge ice boxes, showers and double berths all had marketable appeal to a world where not every sailor was obsessed by windward performance, anchors or being rolled 360° in a storm. I was asked to deliver one of his Out Island 41s back from the Philippines in 1979, but I turned it down as it was 'incomprehensible' to me having been brought up on the British idea of that time, about what a 'proper' cruising boat should be. (I took a Nicholson 32 instead!). But they sold by the thousands and stayed in production well into the 90s.
And Charlie made money from designing and building boats (and that's not easy!). So much money when he sold Morgan Yachts, that he was able to fund his own campaign to defend the America's Cup. He designed, built and helmed the 12M Heritage but lost out in the defender trials to Intrepid.
His life in boat designing, building and sailing continued at break-neck speed. I didn't work with him until he was well into his 70s and he was still going flat out. He had been involved in designing trawler yachts for a while in later life and we built a few in aluminium. He would fly himself up to the boatyard every other Friday, check progress in the morning and iron out any niggles, then enjoy a fairly lengthy lunch and regale us with stories of a life well lived, before flying himself home in the evening.
It's not everyone you meet in life whose memory is enough to make you smile and chuckle. But Charlie was one.