1970 Morgan 40 Cruising Ketch

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Fishman_Tx

Quick update:
1970 Morgan Cruising Ketch - Lady Catherine II

It's ours! She needs a bottom job and topsides paint. Some gel-coat stress cracks showing through previous paint job and the ablative is coming off in chunks. Somebody DIDN'T prime first! No biggie, gonna do it right this time.

Soft spots were very small and only 3; 2 on port and starboard side decks and one near the windlass. None greater than about 10 inches. No biggie. All else is golden! Getting quotes from the yard here for the work so that next she goes in the water she is 100% ready for the Islands, Mon!

Can you see the color green in my text here when I say "I'm happy for you?"

[Fishman_Tx]

Absolutely! Dripping green!

If it makes you feel any better, we still got about 10 grand in work to go... LOL!

The one other major expense is that she has no solar or wind power; all alternator. That's gotta change! At the moment we're thinking 400 watts of solar and a 140w +/- wind turbine on an aft pulpit frame. Wish they made small helicals. Much more efficient in light airs than the standard "prop jobs".

[Hearts Content]

Give Catalina in Florida a call. They are in the old Morgan Factory and likely have some old stuff. Some of the workers there built the Morgans.

[Fishman_Tx]

Aaaall-righty then!

She's a '69 not a '70!! Awesome! That means plywood cores and THICK hull glass!

Well, isn't it amazing that when you get up close how so much is unseen in the "sales pix" which are really "old pix"! Unfortunately, the POs have taken all the beautiful blue "accoutrements" and now she looks so "plain jane" not like the Lady she should, but that's ok. We're going to make her The Lady again. Lot's of little things that a little buffing compound, a vacuum cleaner, and some fabric will fix.

Turns out she has 2 upper berths by the companionway ladder and 2 settees that act as 2 more berths just underneath for a total of 4 berths! --_I=I_--
Sorry no pic of the Vee except sitting in it looking aft. The tall black pipe in the forward head is the main mast and it's coated in some rubbery cushion material.

The topsides "paint" does not resemble paint, but seems to be Durabak used as paint on an unprepped surface that is now flaking off. Also, it seems that there is a blanked through-hull that was only worked on one side of the hull instead of both. The yard will take care of that with the bottom job. That's not gonna work!

The battery boxes have lots of debris and "extra wiring" where only DC feeders should exist. These will get a complete overhaul and rewiring to proper panels as well as the addition of 4ea Optima D31M deep cycle cells for a total of 300ah for the house. These are a failure waiting to happen. According to the surveyor, everything is wired according to ABYC specs. Really?? I HIGHLY DOUBT THAT, SCHMUCK!!! The wiring bundles aren't even loomed and are hanging down in the spaces, unsecured.

The DC service seems to have two 4-way battery switches, for some reason, and the boat only has 3 batteries total. One each for engine start, house, and bow thruster. We'll probably be changing out to 2ea SC34M 800cca Optima start batteries as well as the aforementioned 4ea D31M house set. Maybe put the extras on the bow thruster...whatever.

The reality of it all is that she's a bit dirty and doesn't seem to have gotten wet in a couple years or more. The upgrades seem to have been done properly with the exception of the larger, more important ones like the ablative being applied straight to glass with no barrier coats or primer. Same-same topsides with the Durabak.

But through all this diatribe I'm writing..
NONE of this was unexpected! Always go into a purchase eyes wide open with a tendency to be overly judgmental and highly skeptical. It'll save your ass and a lot of buyers remorse later on.

You still can't beat this gal for $15K!!!!!

[Don C L]

I'm a little surprised you didn't find MORE to concern you! Great to have those old thick decks! I think you are right! Hard to beat at that price. Congrats again! I am kind of wondering about the bow rollers out there... I am not sure that is a strong enough set-up for the (downward) stress that can be applied out there in various anchoring situations. Is there some support underneath the rollers?
edit: went back and looked at the other shots of the bow. I think if it were me I'd be considering bringing the bow rollers back closer to the bow, but that's just me.

[Fishman_Tx]

I think they "tried" but you know how it goes with some folks; "Ahh, it's something I can live with" or "Ok that's good enough". As evidenced by the paint and durabak'd topsides, they cut corners on the expensive things "regular folks" would pay to have done by "trying" to do it themselves.
Thankfully, the only big items are paint and that's big enough!

Re: bow rollers. Do you think so? We'll need to look again and see. The anchor windlass will need to be re-bedded anyway due to soft spot #3 where the chain goes into the locker, so adding reinforcement is already in the plan for that as well as a coffer dam for the chain drop. I agree on the bow reinforcement and was thinking a full length backing plate from the windlass base to the pulpit, probably of epoxied plywood, stained to match the interior of the Vee. I don't know. This thing has been through 47 years of use, so I would guess even though it's held up this long, it IS old and could probably use some extra help.

[Don C L]

Hard to tell, but the mooring bit definitely looks stout and I imagine it is all very stout unless there are the soft spots, but as you say repairs and adding big backing blocks will take care of it. I just would scrutinize those rollers out there because I know occasionally, if the anchor gets buried or stuck, or it is a particularly rough evening, there can be a LOT of force down on that pulpit. I know a lot of boats with bowsprits have rollers out 2 or three feet from the bow but I eye them with suspicion. Maybe I'm too neurotic but I used to sail a Downeast 38 that had the roller out on the sprit and one windy night, with the bow pitching, I was really glad the owner always relied on a snubber mounted to a monster fitting down at the waterline. I never trusted that wood sprit to hold the force of such a relatively large boat pitching up on a stuck anchor. But that said, I never heard of it breaking.

[Fishman_Tx]

Hey Don!
Sorry for the delayed response. Looks like my foray into the Electric Drive scene brought all the naysayers out of the woodwork so had to abandon it. Great folks over at Electric Seas are helping me on those issues now.
Those items on the bow all have steel backers already. They were behind a panel in the v-berth. We found out that the pulpit is a custom job and not the original. Also, we're missing the JRC 1800 radar scanner from the mizzen mount. Trying to find out where it went and to find a replacement, which is near impossible.

Well, we still don't have the quotes from the yard in Virginia yet. We've been emailing them regularly to keep the fire under their butts. We weren't going to decommission and ship until all that was done, but now we're considering shipping to Houston area to have it all done. My friends dad runs Watergate marina down in Kemah/Seabrook area and knows everybody reputable in the area. Also, in my opinion, I would have it shipped and then painted so as not fall prey to damage from road hazards on the way, but that's not my call. I've found a couple of yards that'll paint and recommission her and set her in the water. Then the 3 day trip to Aransas!

Hopefully, it'll get down here soon. I'm getting itchy deck shoes!
Well..
That might be just fungus. They're pretty old.


Anyway....

[Don C L]

Yep don't blame those feet for itching. Me, it's my palms, for the feel of the tiller! I still have my mast down doing some repair work, hoping to get it done before end of the month! I am watching a lot of beautiful sailing days go by! Good luck on the move, hope you're in the water soon!

[Fishman_Tx]

Ok, folks this will be my last post here. I've gotten tired of all the nay-sayers and BS against any creative ideas outside the box of conventional thinking. The few who do this are the same ones every time and it REALLY puts me off when fools who think they know everything, want to tell me what I can and can't do. This place is still a wealth of information and I intend to use it as such in the future, but my posting days are over.

That being said, here is my final update on Lady Catherine, the 1969 Morgan 40 Ketch.

We bought the boat for $15k, of course the POs pulled all the lovely blue accoutrements and kept them, but that's ok. The bottom ablative paint was coming off in large chunks and upon soda blasting, revealed "THE POX!!!!" (DUHN, DUHN, Duuuuuuuhn!). Yep, turns out there was a lot of popcorn under that paint, but that's all right! She's being peeled, patched, and faired as we speak and after all that, she'll get 2 coats of barrier, primer, and 2 colors of ablative overall; $12k worth. After that, she'll be shipped to us here.

I am SO looking forward to taking her out!

Thanks to all of you who were kind to me, the novice, and gave us such good information and help with our Bristol 34 and here with the Morgan 40.

And to all those badly opinionated fools and others with cranio-rectal colitis (head up your ass) who pretty much single-handedly put me off this site,
"Up Yours!".

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Fishman_Tx

Ok, folks this will be my last post here. I've gotten tired of all the nay-sayers and BS against any creative ideas outside the box of conventional thinking. The few who do this are the same ones every time and it REALLY puts me off when fools who think they know everything, want to tell me what I can and can't do. This place is still a wealth of information and I intend to use it as such in the future, but my posting days are over.

That being said, here is my final update on Lady Catherine, the 1969 Morgan 40 Ketch.

We bought the boat for $15k, of course the POs pulled all the lovely blue accoutrements and kept them, but that's ok. The bottom ablative paint was coming off in large chunks and upon soda blasting, revealed "THE POX!!!!" (DUHN, DUHN, Duuuuuuuhn!). Yep, turns out there was a lot of popcorn under that paint, but that's all right! She's being peeled, patched, and faired as we speak and after all that, she'll get 2 coats of barrier, primer, and 2 colors of ablative overall; $12k worth. After that, she'll be shipped to us here.

I am SO looking forward to taking her out!

Thanks to all of you who were kind to me, the novice, and gave us such good information and help with our Bristol 34 and here with the Morgan 40.

And to all those badly opinionated fools and others with cranio-rectal colitis (head up your ass) who pretty much single-handedly put me off this site,
"Up Yours!".

Wow, I am surprised, I don't recall much negativity here. But you have a sweet boat, best of luck to you!

[Fishman_Tx]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Wow, I am surprised, I don't recall much negativity here. But you have a sweet boat, best of luck to you!

Thanks Don!

It was in other threads and other project ideas. Lot of history.
Sad.
But...
Oh well!

[Cap Erict3]

The ignore function works.

A lot of good folks here and a wealth of info.

Hang in there, Tex.

[landlockedsquid]

Sorry to see you go, that is a nice looking boat you scored. I too am interested in electric drive. Im not sure it is a technology that is ready for primetime, but without pioneers spending their money to try it, it will never happen. So I wish you good luck on it.
Its just to bad you don't have thicker skin.
Fair winds and following seas.

[GregWC]

How did the Lady C II weather the hurricanes this year????