morgan classic vs morgan oi

[Dream Maker]

Hi

We have owned a 1986 Morgan Classic for two years and having been full time cruising since we bought her. So far there hasn't been any other boat that we have coveted. We love our Morgan Classic! We haven't sailed the OI but have talked to lots of owners. Personally, I found the OI lacking in some things I wasn't prepared to compromise on--galley size and the port seat in the cockpit has too shallow of a coaming.

Some comments:
- Classic has a modified keel to points better and does not need to have the engine started to tack as some OI owners do. It also sails faster.
- Classic was built by Catalina using the Morgan plans. It has a far superior galley to the OI. That was a show stopper for us. More storage space and a whole extra counter that is about 7" long for food prep. Less danger of burns reaching across the stove to get at cupboards.
- 1987 and newer Classics increased the height of the hall to the aft cabin. A nice improvement. 1986 and older you bend a bit more.
- both have great engine rooms for working
- Morgan 41s have great storage space (even better than the 43 and 46)

I agree with another person above that Endevours are a good alternative. For a coastal cruiser, you may also consider an Irwin. Some have an awesome amount of space in the salon although they are not as strong a boat as the Morgans.They are also less money.

Happy hunting!

[cabo_sailor]

The ONLY bad thing I have heard about the Endeavour CC is that the tanks are aluminum and after all these years many are starting to fail. I've also been told that they can be incredibly expensive to replace.

I helped a friend replace the water tank on an Endeavor 37 and it was pretty easy.

Are there any Endeavour owners out there that can set the record straight for me?? I rather like the boat but the tankage problem has me spooked.

[High Cotton]

My ENDEAVOUR is a 1982 E40, spent most of it's life in the Carribbean Charter Service and then the previous owner also cruised the Islands til last year.
I have detailed maintenance records since new, and my survey last year shows no "tank" issues....
bottom line, this boat didn't "live" at the dock and no problems to this date.

I think any part of maintaining any boat is keeping the tanks clean, maybe that helps.

[Inthewind]

I can honestly say that I have never cranked up the engine to tack on my Morgan OI.

[morganstrudel41]

Nice job on the painting! I'm in Ft. Myers and interested what the price was. Was it hull and deck? Pretty boat. Thanks, Ole

[Thorne]

Nope, never had to start the engine to tack.


Would love it if there was a bit more head room going to the aft cabin.


They must have lowered the floor.

[SV Liberty]

I have never sailed on a Morgan classic, but I would like to so I would have a comparison. I do have about 25,000 nautical miles on our 1982 Morgan 416, between Texas, the US East Coast, the Bahamas, the Eastern Caribbean and the Northwest Caribbean, including three westbound Gulf of Mexico crossings and a fair amount of offshore between the US East Coast and the islands. I suspect the fin keel and extra 6 inches of draft makes the Morgan Classic sail a tad better, but while cruising (especially in the Bahamas) I very much appreciated both the shallow draft (4'3", probably more like 4'5" fully loaded with a family of four and lots of provisions) and the full keel (nice if you sail over a long fishing line at night or a coral head in the daytime) of the Morgan Out Island.

We don't turn the engine on to tack, although there was one time when we had lost our engine (blown out oil line on a passage in the Bahamas) and we were beating in sees that built rapidly to more than 2 meters as we got into shallower water (less than 200 feet) on a lee shore, and I was nervous that we would have to tack and would have trouble. As it turned out we sailed past the island safely, but if we had had trouble tacking I would've quickly shortened sail and jibed around carefully. We have the tall rig on our 416, and I believe that makes for a moderately better sailor than the older short rig Out Islands. We are shore bound now putting kids through college, but look forward to being back out on our Morgan Out Island 416.

Based on the good reviews I've read above from satisfied Morgan Classic owners, I suspect I could be happy in either boat. One more thing I really like a lot about our Morgan 416 is the ketch rig. Although I do not have experience sailing sloops, I have come to really appreciate the flexibility of the ketch rig. We almost always sail with the mizzen up, but often without the main. Off the wind (100° or higher) we almost never have the main up, and the boat sails like a dream. I'm not sure how available the Morgan classic is in a ketch rig.

[EWERTHNER]

Originally Posted by slomotion

Also, even boats that start out ‘fast’ will be slower once they’re loaded up for cruising. Probably, boats that start out heavy take less of a hit than light weight performance cruisers.

Maybe it’s different for multi-day passages or crossing oceans, but for island hopping around the Bahamas/Caribbean there isn’t much of a premium on speed. Most of the time you make glorified day sails and you plan them for the anticipated conditions. Of course, the anticipated conditions sometimes don’t materialize and you can wind up using the engine or going some place else or just not going at all. We had some close calls where we needed to make the next anchorage before night fall and more speed would have helped. But for the most part, the worst that can happen is that you anchor in the lee of an island or keep sailing until daybreak.

In the Caribbean we pretty much had a permanent reef in the mainsail, and if the winds were over 20 knots, we often had two. Comfort was much more important to us than speed - we were already in paradise and we weren’t in a hurry.

OTOH, the old Hunter 34 was an excellent light wind performer even after being overloaded with cruising stuff. In 10 knot winds we enjoyed shaking the reef out and yelling insults at fellow cruisers who poked along at 4 knots while we screamed past at 4 1/2. And, if we didn't suck at sail trim, we might have hit 5!

Nothing like a humble honest person