Morgan Out Island 41 vs. the Pacific Ocean?

[Celestialsailor]

I was surprised how well my Ingrid 38 tacked with it's full keel. Docking it down-wind though was nothing short of a controlled crash...

[CaptainDana]

Is this thread still going without addressing the topic? I have an OI 41 Classic. It goes upwind fast enough for me and it goes downwind like a freight train. That is completely beside the O/P's point.

I have sailed in the Pacific having learned on a Catamaran in Hawaii in the 1960s. I've sailed the California's Channel Islands. I've crossed the bar and sailed up the Columbia River to Portland. I've sailed all over the Chesapeake Bay and a bit of the Carribean.

I still don't know if my OI41 Classic can handle the not-so-Pacific Ocean. I'm not worried about hull flex or speed. I'm worried about seaworthiness. I want to know that it will stand back up after a knock-down. I want to know if it will stay relatively dry inside. I want to know if those cockpit drains are adequate.

I've read tons of passage logs and it seems like nobody goes out for 20 or more days without breaking stuff. I want to know, what breaks on an OI 41.

Is there anyone on this forum who has made a Pacific passage in a 1980's vintage OI41? If not, I'll let you know how it went in a few years.

Happy Sailing
Captain Dana S/V One Love
'87 OI 41 Classic

[Scaramanga F25]

Twenty years ago I won the Columbus Day Regatta, cruising class, in Miami on my Morgan OI 41-6.

I have owned, cruised and raced,all types of sailboats. From an Ultra light fast winner to very heavy displacement cruiser and others (IOR) in between. Traditional to ultra modern. Single handed and with the worlds best sailors.
My OI 41-6 ketch was the most loved by women ( comfort at sea ) and by far the best all round cruiser that I have owned. Sails flat. My good friend has the Morgalina OI and it sails a little better. When these Morgans were introduced in the early 70's I poo pooed the boat and bought a Westsail 32. Mistake. I loved, lived and cruised full time, with my baby girls, on my W32 for 3 years. I would have been so much better off with the OI.
For long ocean crossing work I would only add 2 inch port and starboard cockpit drains as the ones provided are slow to drain. That being said I only had water in the cockpit once in 5 years of inter island cruising 6 months of the year.
In normal people cruising you will find that a lot of motoring is done.
I consider the OI 41-6 tall rig ketch as a very good sailing motorsailer.

[roverhi]

Phrf numbers are heavily weighted to windward and light air performance. Something that isn't in a heavy displacement cruisers vocabulary.

The reality of long distance sailing, except for the masochistic, is tradewind sailing. That's brisk winds mostly on the beam or further aft. So when it comes to speed and passage times on actual cruising passages, the heavy displacement boats do quite well. I really don't like the Morgan Out Island boats because they are ugly, but they do sail well on a reach. When I had my state of the art 35' IOR boat on the Chesapeake thought I'd smoke an Out Island 41 that was sailing by. Boy did I get my come uppence. In moderate winds on a reach he soon left me in his wake.

My own experience with our Westsail 32 is we made passages as fast and often way faster than other boats of similar water line length. Passed a state of the art S&S half tonner which drove him crazy trying to figure out how to make his boat go faster without putting up a chute. We averaged 118nmpd over 10,000 miles with almost no engine time other than for battery charging. Best days run was 178nm and often had 150nm days. Of course there were near single digit days as well when there was virtually no wind in the Doldrums. These were miles through the water measured by our Walker Log, not current assisted miles from a GPS.

Then there is the definition of going to wind. Sailing hard on the wind pinching up as far as we could was a way to get badly embarrassed. Let the sheets run a little free to get up a bit of speed and she did quite well thankyou. That hard on the wind stuff gets old in a hurry and I'm talking hours old, not the days old that you might encounter on a passage. Sailing as close to the wind as we cared to live with, once for 5 days, she'd still reel off 125nm days.

Of course there are those that will say anyone who would buy a Beneteau probably doesn't know how to sail in any case.

[robert sailor]

The Morgan OI certainly would never win a beauty contest and they do sail to windward like a straw bale but that aside they do just fine on a reach. A good friend had one and convinced me to help him sail it in a local beer can race and it was the most frustrating experience I ever had. Tacking was so slow you could finish your beer and the upwind angle was not very close to the wind. On the upwind leg it felt like everyone else was on a different race course. When we finally got on the reaching leg we were doing fine, not particularly quick but fine. The boat was comfortable to be on and it rode like most heavy boats..1957 Cadillac like. The layout below was fine and in the PNW summers you motor a lot anyways so my friend was happy with his choice. There were different build qualities over the years so some research might be needed.
We met another Morgan OI 41 in the Marshall Islands of all places, he had about 20 diesel jugs strapped to his rails so I suspect he didn't try to get it moving in light air but none the less he was there and that's a long way from home.He seemed happy enough with it, bought it for a song so it didn't owe him anything.
Not my choice for a good cruising boat but it seems that others disagree with me because we do run into them here and there.
Getting one confused with an HR only suggests that the sailors that get confused are well...confused!

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by roverhi

.....I really don't like the Morgan Out Island boats because they are ugly, but they do sail well on a reach. .....

What boat doesn't sail well on a reach? All the cruising boats I've sailed on did just fine reaching. It is the other points of sail that really differentiate.

[Cheechako]

Bottom line for many cruisers is they are not trying to inch out a few more degrees to weather on a passage, or another tenth of a knot, they are more likely busy whipping the end of a line that needs it or etc.

[Linwood4]

I always love these discussions on boat brands and attributes...the passion and fire..its like arguing which of our kids are smarter....getting a flood of proud parents with trophies... then one parent saying "well my kids nicer" and we all smile and look at our kids....You love your boat? Me too just like my imperfect kids...maybe a bit more because we struggle together.

[TheJBJester]

Hi Denise,

Do you still have your boat in Victoria?

Thanks

[TheJBJester]

Originally Posted by Morgan Blue

Hey Riversandbar,
You sent this message awhile back so I'm assuming you already made your choice, but I thought I'd respond anyway. My husband and I live on our '78 Morgan Out Island 415. We love our boat. A couple years ago, we sailed it up from Mexico to Victoria, BC. This is not an easy trip: we were against the wind most days and, as you know, Morgans don't sail well into the wind. She handled marvelously. The only problems we faced were engine trouble and our own ignorance. The engine trouble was an easy fix (we lost our anti-stalling screw) but our ignorance took longer to solve. Fortunately, we've learned much since then and are now in the process of planning our next trip: circumnavigating Vancouver Island.

Sailors give the Morgan OI a hard time because it is a chunky elephant of a boat. However, they are sturdy, solid cruising boats. In the last few years, I have met a handful of people who have navigated the Atlantic in their Morgan OIs. If you're not on a strict timeline, it may be the perfect boat. However, make sure you've had it surveyed recently and upgraded for smooth bluewater cruising. Good luck!

-Denise

Do you still have your boat, Denise?