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Living , Modern
Charles
Morgan
1929 –
Founder of Morgan Yacht Corporation, Charley Morgan has been a fixture in the world of U.S. sailing since the late 1940s. Sailmaker, racing sailor, yacht designer, boatbuilder and America’s Cup designer and competitor; Charley has been active in all aspects of the sport of sailing. Charley’s first official project was a plywood 32-foot sailboat named Brisote, designed and built in conjunction with Charlie Hunt. When Morgan entered her in a Havana race, committee members rejected his entry. Unlike the other boats, Brisote had no engine. Morgan staunchly contended that boats sailed long before they motored, so there should be no problem with a pure sailing vessel in a sailboat race. The committee reversed their decision, and Morgan and Bidwell won second place in the Class C division. The competitive Morgan raced sailboats at every opportunity, and his reputation grew as an aggressive skipper and competent crew. His entrepreneurial spirit and business education prompted him to try his hand at sailmaking. In 1952, he opened the doors of Morgan Racing Sails in St. Petersburg, Florida. Though involved in sailmaking, Morgan continued to design yachts, and in 1960, Jack Powell commissioned Morgan to build a 40-foot fiberglass yawl. This yacht, Paper Tiger, earned the 1961 Southern Ocean Racing Conference (SORC) championship title her first year in competition. Morgan decided to go into business with his childhood friend Bruce Bidwell. Under the leadership of Morgan and Bidwell, Morgan Yacht Corporation delivered its first sailboat in September 1965. By December the company had such a backlog of orders that they temporarily stopped accepting them. At the close of 1968, Morgan Yacht merged with Beatrice Foods. On May 3, 1970, Morgan’s 12-metre, Heritage, was launched. She lost to Intrepid in the America’s Cup. n 1972, he had the vision to identify the charter boat market need for a spacious cruising sailboat. He created a center cockpit sailboat with a spacious salon and aft stateroom and christened it the Morgan Out Island 41. The charter companies liked the vessels and the spillover into the recreational marketplace was phenomenal. “Windward work was accomplished courtesy of a standard, powerful engine,” critiqued a December 1998 Cruising World “Classic Plastic” article. BoatUS acknowledged that the Out Island had “a pudgy appearance and less than stellar sailing performance, but time has proven this boat to be the most popular boat over 40 feet ever built.” In 1984, Catalina Yachts purchased Morgan Yachts and introduced a redesigned Out Island 41 Classic. Catalina produced the model from 1986 until 1993. More than 1,000 Out Islands are still afloat today. Accomplishments and Honors Boats Designed by Charley Morgan Antigua 53 Chrysler 27 Columbia 31 Columbia 38 Columbia 38 CB Columbia 39 Constellation Columbia 40 Com-Pac 35 CSY 505 Heritage 1 ton Heritage Super 27 Hirsh 62 Melody 34 (Hunt) Morgan 22 Morgan 24/25 Morgan 26 Morgan 27 Morgan 28 Morgan 30 Morgan 30-2 Morgan 33 Morgan 33T Morgan 34 Morgan 35 Morgan 38 Morgan 40 Cruising Ketch Morgan 41 Morgan 42-1 Morgan 42-2 Morgan 45 Morgan 45 (S&J) Morgan 54 (Marauder) Morgan Out Island 28 Morgan Out Island 30 Morgan Out Island 33 Morgan Out Island 33 MS Morgan Out Island 36 Morgan Out Island 37/372 Morgan Out Island 41 Morgan Out Island 41 Classic Morgan Out Island 415 Morgan Out Island 415 Ketch Morgan Out Island 416 Morgan Out Island 49 Morgan Out Island 51 Nautical 39 Spindrift 24 Starratt & Jenks 45 Tiger Cub 28 TMI 27 West Indies 36 (Morgan) West Indies 38 (Morgan)
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