DiverTitch
Member
Hi Team We are looking at going to the States to buy a liveaboard and have seen a number of Morgans 40-42ft, 1980-85 for sale. Does anyone have experiance of living on or sailing this type of boat?
Living on an Morgan Out Island Sloop
- Thread starter DiverTitch
- Start date
Salty John
Active member
Known as the Morgan 41 Outhouse, a very popular liveaboard with stacks of room. Most were ketches, I prefer the sloop if you can find one.
Very high free board, centre-cockpit design places you high up which can be a little unnerving for some. Top priority is to make arrangements for boarding, or reboarding, should you fall overboard.
Not pretty but very practical. It was designed for the charter trade.
We accompanied one along the north coast of Hispaniola and on to the BVI's - it performed OK on this windward trip and I envied them the space. Huge interior.
Very high free board, centre-cockpit design places you high up which can be a little unnerving for some. Top priority is to make arrangements for boarding, or reboarding, should you fall overboard.
Not pretty but very practical. It was designed for the charter trade.
We accompanied one along the north coast of Hispaniola and on to the BVI's - it performed OK on this windward trip and I envied them the space. Huge interior.
silver-fox
Active member
I very nearly bought a Morgan Out Island 41. What put me off was the discovery that they perform very poorly upwind and have an AVS of (IIRC) around 108 deg, which is not stable enough for anyone planning any blue water sailing.
All this info is widely available via google so do get it confirmed... (however did we manage before Google?).
You will also see reports of variable build quality, although how much store to set by this I cannot say. The Morgan I looked at showed no signs of this despite its 30 years.
All this info is widely available via google so do get it confirmed... (however did we manage before Google?).
You will also see reports of variable build quality, although how much store to set by this I cannot say. The Morgan I looked at showed no signs of this despite its 30 years.
Bajansailor
Well-known member
It would also be worthwhile having a look at CSY 44s for sale - they followed on later from the Morgan Out Island 41 as the 'must have' charter boat in the Caribbean in the late 70's / early 80's.
Popular features with these vessels are the 400 gallon water capacity, and the 'brick outhouse' standard of construction.
Here are some 44's, and also a few 37's, for sale on Yachtworld :
http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/c...ddedSelected=-1
They would generally tend to be a fair bit more expensive that the OI 41's though.
Popular features with these vessels are the 400 gallon water capacity, and the 'brick outhouse' standard of construction.
Here are some 44's, and also a few 37's, for sale on Yachtworld :
http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/c...ddedSelected=-1
They would generally tend to be a fair bit more expensive that the OI 41's though.
Pete7
Well-known member
Sounds like you are doing something similar to Steve and Liz, they post as Capt Pugwash occasionally.
http://www.geocities.com/imajica99/
http://www.geocities.com/imajica99/
tomperanteau
New member
Having never owned one, I can see how you could have fallen victim to the propaganda on the web regarding this fine boat. She in fact does fine in blue water sailing, and one owner that sailed throughout the South Pacific wrote a book about his adventures. There is another that has recently released a documentary of he and his daughter circumnavigating in one of these boats.
Yes, you will see reports of all sorts of things, but as I always tell people, talk to the owners of the vessel you are looking to buy, and not the armchair sailors that regurgitate what they have heard from someone else.
geem
Well-known member
From friends that brought one back to the uk we learnt that the hull is very solid. They are quite slow. They were pretty badly put together but subsequent owners may have sorted most of the original issues. Things like plumbing and wiring were very poor in the original boats. They are cheap. They offer a lot of accommodation
BobnLesley
Well-known member
I'd never heard of them until we reached the Caribbean, but we've now got several sets of friends who sail them and in the last couple of years we've sailed with Out Islands several times, on them a couple of times and I've also helped out with several maintenance jobs; so my two-pennorth:
They are certainly not 'fast', but off the wind they're not too slow either; the shallow-draft and wide hull mean they're a long way from first-choice to go upwind though, not so much that they can't point high, just that they make a lot off leeway.
The hull-shape/shallow draft also sees them rolling more in exposed anchorages than our deep draft/long-keeler; then again, that charge could be laid at the door of most N American designed/built boats when compared to their European counterparts. We do envy them when the water gets a bit thin though, barrelling through where our 6' draft sees us ploughing through the mud/sand to follow, which makes them brilliant in the USA/Bahamas - where they were designed for perhaps?
The hulls are solid and they appear to be low aspect/under-canvassed rigs both of which we see as a plus-point in a safe cruising boat. Engine-wise we've seen everything from recently renewed to smoke-belching dogs - you'll get what you pay for - and on the couple I've worked-on, access was good - much better than our own. Everything else mechanically will be similar - anything 'original' will be long in the tooth and tired, so it'll depend on individual updates. Personally, I wouldn't choose one to cross an Ocean - at least not if starting from the Caribbean anyway where the choices are Atlantic heading eastbound, or that long haul across the Pacific, but for living aboard in the Caribbean/Bahamas/east coat USA, I think they're brilliant and you certainly won't get better accommodation for your $ with anything else.
They are certainly not 'fast', but off the wind they're not too slow either; the shallow-draft and wide hull mean they're a long way from first-choice to go upwind though, not so much that they can't point high, just that they make a lot off leeway.
The hull-shape/shallow draft also sees them rolling more in exposed anchorages than our deep draft/long-keeler; then again, that charge could be laid at the door of most N American designed/built boats when compared to their European counterparts. We do envy them when the water gets a bit thin though, barrelling through where our 6' draft sees us ploughing through the mud/sand to follow, which makes them brilliant in the USA/Bahamas - where they were designed for perhaps?
The hulls are solid and they appear to be low aspect/under-canvassed rigs both of which we see as a plus-point in a safe cruising boat. Engine-wise we've seen everything from recently renewed to smoke-belching dogs - you'll get what you pay for - and on the couple I've worked-on, access was good - much better than our own. Everything else mechanically will be similar - anything 'original' will be long in the tooth and tired, so it'll depend on individual updates. Personally, I wouldn't choose one to cross an Ocean - at least not if starting from the Caribbean anyway where the choices are Atlantic heading eastbound, or that long haul across the Pacific, but for living aboard in the Caribbean/Bahamas/east coat USA, I think they're brilliant and you certainly won't get better accommodation for your $ with anything else.
Tam Lin
Well-known member
I expect the OP found himself a boat in the last six years!
