Southwinds Magazine

If you know boats, you know his name. No compendium of yachting, power or sail, would be complete without a section devoted to the contributions of the colorful, controversial, innovative Charley Morgan. A pioneer in the fiberglass boat building industry, few individuals inspire the enduring cult-like loyalty displayed by Morgan enthusiasts.

"Dynamic, impatient and gifted," Red Marston, a writer for the St. Petersburg Times, said of him in 1962. Others called him a fathead, a publicity seeker of the first magnitude and a guy who wouldn't let his mother win a match boat race. "Only the latter is possibly true," wrote Marston.

Born in Chicago and raised in Florida, Morgan's passion for boats began at 10 years of age when his aunt and uncle took him sailing on Lake Conway near Orlando. He exhibited early signs of his creative talent shortly thereafter when he built a boat from discarded produce crates taken from his part-time job at a grocery store. A patchwork of sugar sacks functioned as sails.

Through sailing, Morgan met a like-minded sailing buddy, Bruce Bidwell, and the duo sailed Tampa Bay at every opportunity. By 17 years of age, the pair successfully completed the race from St. Petersburg, FL to Havana, Cuba.

Morgan's first official project was a plywood 32-foot sailboat named Brisote, designed and built in conjunction with Charlie Hunt. When Morgan entered her in a Havana race, committee members rejected his entry. Unlike the other boats, Brisote had no engine. Morgan staunchly contended that boats sailed long before they motored, so there should be no problem with a pure sailing vessel in a sailboat race. The committee reversed their decision, and Morgan and Bidwell won second place in the Class C division.

Morgan enrolled in classes at Orlando's Valencia Junior College and the University of Tampa. Afterward he accepted a short-lived job with a telephone company. But the lure of boats and sailing led him to a position as sail maker with Johnson Sails in Tampa.

The competitive Morgan raced sailboats at every opportunity, and his reputation grew as an aggressive skipper and competent crew. "I have a feel for boats and racing. I can't explain why I have it, but I do. I'm very fortunate," he once said. His entrepreneurial spirit and business education prompted him to try his hand at sailmaking. In 1952 he opened the doors at Morgan Racing Sails in St. Petersburg.

Morgan continued to design yachts, and in 1960, Jack Powell, a famous yachtsman from New York, commissioned Morgan to build a 40-foot fiberglass yawl. Paper Tiger earned the 1961 Southern Ocean Racing Conference championship title her first year in competition.

A 1962 repeat championship performance by Paper Tiger however, brought controversy. Paper Tiger had a unique ferrous metal internal structural frame. Critics claimed that the framework was bigger and heavier than stated. They accused Morgan of intentionally designing it as ballast, a violation of racing rules. Morgan countered that if he wanted to cheat, why hadn't he hidden the structure deep in the fiberglass hull rather than just below the deck? He won the battle, but shortly thereafter fell ill with tuberculosis and was hospitalized. During his hospital stay, he sketched preliminary plans for a 12-meter dream boat. Prior to his illness, Morgan Yacht Corporation, formed in 1961, had produced a handful of mini Paper Tigers called Tiger Cubs. During his illness the company lay dormant. Charley was the company.

After his recovery, Morgan bounced back and accepted a project that was, at that time, the construction of the world's largest fiberglass sailboat. In 1964 the 60-foot yawl Maredea won her first race from St. Petersburg, FL to Venice. During tank tests on Maredea's hull, Morgan felt compelled to go into business with his childhood friend Bruce Bidwell. In typical Morgan-style, he walked to the nearest phone and tracked down his childhood friend with whom he had lost touch.

Under the leadership of Morgan and Bidwell, Morgan Yacht Corporation delivered its first sailboat in September 1965. By December the company had such a backlog of orders that they temporarily stopped accepting them. "I couldn't believe it," said Morgan. That year the company grossed $1.7 million. Base boat prices without sails ranged from $995 for a Windmill to $44,900 for a 45-foot sailboat. Morgan was pure businessman. "Nothing leaves that driveway out there unless and until it's paid for," he said.

At the close of 1968, Morgan Yacht merged with Beatrice Foods, and Morgan found himself with several million dollars. Charley Morgan was about to have the 12-meter dream boat he envisioned while in the hospital. He earmarked $ 750,000. for Heritage and set his sights on the 1970 America's Cup. Morgan's bid for the cup would reportedly cost him personally in excess of one million dollars.

Asked why he sought to win the America's Cup, Morgan replied, "It's all just another way of measuring yourself. Competitive men always want to know how big they are in relation to others, how they can perform. Dollars are a way of keeping score. There may be other means in a more mature society. Why this? Well, there's damn little you can justify outside of wanting to keep on breathing."

Our Heritage became St. Petersburg's sweetheart. "A victory for Heritage and Morgan would be a victory for FL and St. Petersburg," wrote Hal Bamford of the St. Petersburg Evening Independent. The completion of the framing stage, the arrival of her 90 foot aluminum mast and the lifting of her 53,000-pound keel made from thousands of battery lead plates from the mold (1,200 pounds of it to be extracted later in Newport, R.I., to meet waterline length requirements), were newsworthy items. Rival Ted Irwin of Irwin Yachts called a temporary halt to the fierce competition between the two companies. Now is the time to gather round and support Charley, he said.

On May 2, 1970, Heritage was nearly launched. Nearly. An uneven strain between two cranes supporting the vessel almost caused her to prematurely plunge into Bayboro Harbor. A collision with one of the cranes resulted in a huge gouge in her mahogany sheer, a sprung plank and a bulge on her keel. Hasty assessment and repairs were made, and Morgan launched Heritage 24 hours later amid much celebration. Morgan stepped aboard, and two submarines in the harbor sounded their ship's whistles in salute. The Morgan family motto "Onward and Upward" spelled out in code flags was hoisted.

During the observation trials Intrepid proved to be the speedster while Morgan tweaked Heritage. A twisted spinnaker and crew challenges plagued him. Renowned yacht designer Olin Stephens and Morgan brainstormed about steering difficulties. On the first day of final selection trials for the United States defender position, things were looking up. Heritage emerged victorious with a margin of six minutes and 19 seconds over Weatherly.

But it was not to be. Valiant beat Weatherly, and Heritage lost to Intrepid by a mere 72 seconds. A disallowed protest by Morgan regarding Valiant's skipper brought another setback. A final loss to Intrepid clinched Intrepid's spot as the U. S. defender. News commentator Walter Cronkite said, "Morgan's got a fine boat. He just ran out of time."

A television special about the America's Cup trials, "Dual in the Wind," aired. It depicted the saga of "the super effort of Charley and his Heritage gang, cast from the outset in the underdog role, the non-establishment sailor taking on the big guy, only to lose out in the end," wrote Marston. Copies of the special are available for purchase from the film and video archives section at Mystic Seaport, CT.

The 1970 cup concluded the era of wood-hulled 12 Meter sailboats. Heritage was converted for offshore racing. Afterward, she and her nemesis Intrepid (two-time winner of the America's Cut, 1967 and 1970) dueled often on the Great Lakes circuit during the 1980s whereupon Heritage avenged her America's Cup loss. Both gallant vessels eventually found homes in Newport Harbor, RI, where they continue to "race" in a 12-Meter revival charter fleet against their old adversary Weatherly (winner of the 1962 America's Cup).

Meanwhile, Charley Morgan's drawing pencil never left the paper. In 1972, he ventured into the manufacture of small powerboats. That same year he had the vision to identify the charter boat market need for a spacious cruising sailboat. He created a center cockpit sailboat with a voluminous salon and aft stateroom and christened it the Morgan Out Island 41. The charter companies loved the vessels, and the spillover into the recreational marketplace was phenomenal. "Windward work was accomplished courtesy of a standard, powerful engine," critiqued a December 1998 Cruising World "Classic Plastic" article. Boat U.S. acknowledged that the Out Island had "a pudgy appearance and less than stellar sailing performance, but time has proven this boat to be the most popular boat over 40 feet ever built." In 1984, Catalina Yachts purchased Morgan Yachts and introduced a redesigned Out Island 41 Classic. Catalina produced the model from 1986 until 1993. More than 1,000 Out Islands are still afloat today.

Morgan formed Heritage Yacht Corporation in 1975, which produced sailing and trawler yachts. A few years later, the company encountered financial problems and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Undaunted, Morgan was brought onboard the Chris-Craft staff in 1982 to develop their trawler line. He later transferred ownership of the ailing Heritage Yachts to Catalina.

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Years ago Marston described Morgan as "a vibrant young man who is so tense with ideas, thoughts, philosophies, ambitions and self-improvement projects that on a clear, quiet night you can almost hear him hum as though he were a human generator, which, indeed, he seems to be."

Morgan hasn't changed much since then. He still designs boats, though nowadays his focus is upon custom steel and aluminum offshore yachts.

Not too shabby for a man who gets violently seasick and lacks any formal study in naval architecture.

The 17^th Annual Morgan Invasion will be held on October 5. It is sponsored by the Treasure Island Tennis and Yacht Club.