Catalina Morgan 45 Owners

[sgwright]

Sorry to intrude on this thread, but I am trying to learn more about the Morgan 43 (from 1984-1988 I think), which I believe became the Morgan 44 (from 1989-90 I think) and then the Catalina Morgan 45 from 1991-2000 or so.

I have found enough photos to identify most of the visual differences (centre salon table, offset aft berth in the 43 for example), but am curious about any differences which are not obvious like construction methods, tankage, chain plates, etc.

I am currently considering a 1985 43' which is a bit of a project and shows some water intrusion at the chain plates which may have affected the bulkheads. As a friend has a later CM45, I know that the chain plate design was changed significantly from the early bulkhead mounting.

Thanks.

[SailorKelly68]

Hi
Does any one know what tension the rig setting should be,for the Catalina morgan 45 ie the breaking strain % of the shroud , we are using a loos and co gauge.

[SailorKelly68]

Hi gang. We have hull 11. Based in Panama. Owner number 3. Awesome condition yacht, we have had her for a year. Offshore she sails fabulous. She has a faired hull, new sails, original Yanmar with 3000 hours.
Love to hear from others.

[clongcor59]

Out Of Sight is in Charleston, SC headed for Washington, NC to start some boat projects. One is to install a water maker. If anyone has suggestions on were to locate the install, it would be appreaciated.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by sgwright

Sorry to intrude on this thread, but I am trying to learn more about the Morgan 43 ....

Google Captain Al Watson. He & his wife owned one for a long time and documented their work very thoroughly. I knew him when he had his Catalina 34 before his Morgan, we bought our C34s around the same time in 1998. Nice fellow. You may get a hit on his C34 'site but IIRC there's a link there to his Morgan 'site, too. Good luck.

[BDW]

Howdy CM 45 people!

We are looking at purchasing hull #33 and wondering if anyone has any knowledge about that specific vessel. She is in the Texas gulf coast. Beautiful vessel and we go down for the survey on Friday.

I spoke to someone at Catalina that was able to look up the hull and tell me quite a bit about it and the evolution from 43 and 44 to the 45 But they didn't know/share any areas of concern that we should be double checking. Do y'all have any specific areas that tend to have problems that I should be aware of ?

Thanks for anything you know. With any luck and a clean survey we can count ourselves as fellow owners in a few weeks.

[clongcor59]

Hello BWD,

Best Wishes to you. We have Hull 43 built in 1995. We have owned it since 2020 and have found it to be very solidly built. We are very pleased with our purchase and the support we still get from Catalina. We hauled out our boat "Out Of Sight" last week in North Carolina. We are now back in Galveston until January when we will return and head back to the Bahamas. Please reach out to us if there is anything we can do to assist you.

If I were doing it over again, I would pay particular attention to a few things.

1. How old is the standing rigging? Ours had no specific issues other than age so we replaced it before we left Galveston (December 2022) to cruise. We also pulled the chain plates for inspection. This task is much easier than on some other designs. If you are unaware, age of the rigging can be an insurance issue.

2. Fresh water tanks and black water tanks. If like ours, they are aluminum and can be or become an issue. The black water tank for our forward head did have a pinhole leak. They are fiberglassed in place and difficult to change out. We de-commissioned our forward head and decided to use the space for storage and a water maker since there are only two of us on the boat. Our aft black water tank had already been changed to plastic.

3. Check the steering system for age and maintenance. We replaced our Edson Pull-Pull Conduit system, the throttle (engine control) cable and transmission cable. We did this just to be on the safe side because the conduit makes it impossible to fully inspect the cables which do sometimes fail. Edson recommends replacement at 10 years.

[BDW]

Clongcor59,
Thank you for the suggestions. I know standing at rigging was inspected fairly recently, but not sure on water tanks. The report states that we have new fuel tanks and 2023. I would not have thought to look for the throttle cable system. I’ll make sure that the surveyor checks through that as well.
Your suggestions are very much appreciated!

[BDW]

Hello cm45 owners,
We just purchased hull#33 in Kemah tx. She is exceptionally well found and we are psyched to join the owners group. Interesting enough hull #31 is a few slips down the dock! Are any other owners in the area?

[Rgreen]

Morning all CM45 owners, I recently purchased Hull 47. I live aboard and I am located in New Bern NC. And will be doing lots of repairs to get her up to speed. The Bomar hatches need some TLC. Bomar said they(N1086-10B) are discontinued, and they do not have any gasket materials. Has anyone found a viable solution??

[clongcor59]

Hello Rgreen,

Congratulations on your purchase. I'm sure you will be happy with it. We are hull #43 and currently on the hard in Washington, NC. We plan to be back there to splash in January.

On to your question. I'm assuming you have spoken directly with Pompanette/Bomar (603-826-5791)? I don't have much confidence in any supply store.

We purchased replacement gasket material from them but our hatch models are P2000, which they told me are not original for our Catalina. Evidently one of the owners replaced at some time.

[Rgreen]

Good morning and thank you for your response. i did check with Pompanette/Bomar and they were the ones who provided me the information and had no suggestions on a possible solution and or the OEM of the gasket material.
I noticed you have replaced your steering cables, difficult?? Where did you acquire the ne cables from?? Mine are quite stiff, especially in one direction, probably never been lubricated i am guessing which i will try first.

[derfy]

I own the Nelson Marek [Catalina] Morgan 44cc hull 35, circa 1990, based in Oriental, NC, for six years now. Sailed her from Maine to Grenada and back. A fine, solid vessel, very well equipped, but rather needy from time to time. Done many repairs and replaced a lot of hardware, as did the prior owners. Maintenance and repairs are 8-15 hrs per week when at home, 2-3 hrs per day when cruising.

Observation: Just two ways to buy a boat: a) get your new boat pre-assembled with warranty, or b) buy your new boat one part at a time. I chose plan b cause it was what I could afford (or was willing to pay). My boat is now very new, as a result of a lot of sweat.

Surprised I have not seen this CF thread before. I have not encountered many of these boats, only two or three in the past six years. Lots of good info here. Thanks to all the contributors.

Tried recently to join a Facebook Group for these boats, and was rejected - they suspected I was a spammer, since I do not include a mugshot on my FB profile. I'm just a social media Luddite.

Send me a PM if I can be of help. Fair Winds to all you Morgan sailors.

[clongcor59]

The steering cables were not difficult. We went directly to Edson and they have a lot of helpful instructions. The most difficult task was removing the drive pin to replace the bearings on the cable drive shaft. I had to drill it out. Tried to show the process on our YouTube video https://youtu.be/lD-J4UuKvnM?si=vwEpIAhVr_pXlcFh

[derfy]

Any Catalina Morgan 44-45 owners replace their plexiglass trapezoidal windows? It's my next DIY project. Any advice about do's & don't's, materials, and suppliers greatly welcomed.

In a perfect world, I would replace them with solid fiberglass and a real port light, but that would be a bit too ambitious for my skill level.