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.

Living , Modern

Charles

Morgan

1929 –

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