Morgan 41, 1974 what to check when buying?

[Tetepare]

Deck saturation.

[rhubstuff]

"And I have to say, looking at the pictures, is it normal for the forestay to be offset and the bow roller centered? Might be, but I've never seen that before."

I believe the stemhead fitting was designed for twin jibs, and this is a perfectly normal way to configure them. I would like to see what the masthead fitting looks like. The offset forestay would have no observable effect on the performance of the boat.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

I should have said "I swear at least 50% of boats have water "IN THE RUDDER" Was talking about the rudder...

Ha! I looked back and saw this,- 'should have been obvious to me. Yes, I'm not for water in the rudder. This has been especially important for me as I had two very disturbing rudder failures. Though I must confess, my rudder failures were more of a design problem by delamination and not directly due to the water.

[Allied39]

The morgan OI 41 I had for a while had bulkheads tabbed in with roving woven and because of the poor choice of material there was a lot of delams.

She used to creak and groan under sail.

Port fwd salon cabin sole had an area where no air flowed below the cabin sole and therefore rotted out.

And the last really bad lack of thought process (that comes to mind right now)resulted in a fuel tank in the keel. Top of tank below bilge water. One of the first things I did was suck out the bottom of that "tank" until I stopped getting water......several gallons of it.

That being said it is what it is and would likely perform excellently in the role she was designed for.

Get a GOOD surveyor if serious. At first glance the engine looks cared for which is a good sign.

Walking because of chainplates or rigging must mean they are asking top dollar or you expect a 1974 boat to be the same as a 2021 boat....good luck with that.

[dokondr]

Many thanks for your feedback everybody! After giving it more thought I have decide to abandon the idea of buying Morgan. I often singlehand and in boom reefing will not make my life easier. Yet the main point to reject 50 year old boat is a great investment in replacing things, which I can't afford. So I go back to the idea of 31-32 feet blue water cruiser.