Project:
This website will chronicle the purchase,
restoration re-build and, I am ever
hopeful, sea trials of a 1970 Morgan
Sloop.
Autumn 2004
My wife and I purchased the Morgan from a seller in the Annapolis area.
It had been sitting at his dock for a number of years winter and summer.
I knew very little about sailboats at the time. My wife used to teach
sailing for Tom Allen (maker of the Lighting) many years ago and we have
always loved sailing and wanted to own a larger boat.
The Morgan had many problems that we could see and many more that we
were unaware of. But the boat hull was free. We purchased eight
sails from the seller that are in good shape, so called "sail salvage''. We then
attached a 9.9 HP Johnson to the transom and motored over to the closest
marina for a hull out and evaluation. I purchased many books on fiberglass
hull repair and read through them. I read through the sections on
blister repair and hull delaminating and wondered if may be this was the case on
our newly purchased boat. I have since learned that with this boat
to expect the worse and find a way to fix it!
Some months after buying the Morgan I came across a
website put up by a boat surveyor out of Destin, Florida. He called the
Morgan line "famous for producing some of the most badly blistered boats we
have ever seen" He than went on to say "if you could figure out a way to stop
the leaks this would be a fairly decent boat. But to do that you would have
to just about dismantle everything on the deck including the toe rail and
that's not a project many would have the fortitude or perhaps the
foolishness to tackle." I underlined the word foolishness.
After reading this review by the surveyor from Destin,
Florida I thought back to all of the folks in the sailing community I've
talked to over the months since I purchased the Morgan. Most of them said
that the Morgan was a good if not great boat especially here in the
Chesapeake Bay area. The Morgan 30 has a 3 1/2 foot draft and retractable 3
1/2 foot centerboard, almost perfect for getting around the bay area and
it's estuaries.
While I admit I'm not an expert on sailboat restoration. I have learned
a lot over the last several months. Reading books and manuals; searching the
internet for sites that explain how to carry out repairs on boats, talking to
other boat owners and repair contractors have been an incredible resource.
Being in the Annapolis area where you can find some type of boating supply
store on every corner is probably one of the best places to be for
boat restoration.
Finally, I love working on our boat. Being able to learn new techniques
and having the knowledge to carry out the repairs needed has given me a
great feeling of accomplishment. My dry-dock neighbor who has just
finished a three year restoration of a 40 foot Stevens sailboat said " If you
own a sailboat you should know every system on your boat and how to carry
out repairs on those systems." What better way is there to know how your
sailboat works than to restore it yourself.
August 2006
Two years out of the water and I have to upgrade my dreamy
assessment of the rebuild and not restoration on my Morgan. The Morgan
sailboat I bought is a production boat and I have put more money into it
then what the boat will ever be worth. My new assessment would have been
file down the edges polish up the chrome and put it back into the water and
sail it until she sinks.
However I did learn allot about rebuilding a
fiberglass sailboat and hopefully be able to put that knowledge to good use
when I find that inexpensive pedigree sailboat in desperate need of a
rebuild. I'm hoping to get most of the Morgan done by Fall this year and
bring it home to Rock Point, Maryland and complete the interior by next
Summer. I have to admit that I have immensely enjoyed the work on the boat,
well most everything except cleaning out the bilge!
May 2007
I'm behind on my blog but it has been a busy winter and
spring for me. Yes the Morgan is still at the boat yard (sigh). I've made it
out there 5 times so far this spring. I'm determined to launch the Morgan this
fall. All of my prep
work is just about complete and the only thing left before I can launch is paint and remounting
the deck hardware. I've just about completed the sanding and faring of the bottom
and have re-sanded the upper hull in preparation for another coat of
primer. The engine is installed the bottom is just about all but painted and
the deck still needs to be sanded and re-coated with (hopefully) one more
coat of AwlGrip topcoat.
The one and only Charley Morgan checked into the Guestbook
section of this website, needless to say I was pleasantly surprised when I
read his comments. If your interested you can find it on page 5, entry 71.
Thanks to all who have signed into the Guestbook with your
many words of encouragement. Your comments are very much appreciated.
November 2007
(3 years and 3 months later)
Sea trials and the trip home!
(A-lot of things got put on the boat between my last
log and now that didn't get into this Blog just give me some time and I'll
have them up now that the Morgan is home.)
It was a mad rush to make my self imposed launch deadline
of November 2, 2007. But we did get the boat in the water that day and
continued working on it at the dock until that Sunday when our plan was to
run some sea trials in the morning and then start our two day trip home down
the Chesapeake Bay and 35 miles up the Potomac to our home port of Cobb
Island, Maryland about 130 miles.
The morning sea trials went fine we invited the previous
owner Bud along for the check out and he loved it, the boat did a fantastic
job without a hitch. We later dropped Bud off at the Ferry Point Dock and
started our trip home. About 90 minutes into the trip we where within site
of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and I went down below to grab my camera when I
noticed the newly installed automatic bilge pump light was lit. We where
running with the engine in order to make better time. I took a look at the
bilge and notice there was water filling up the lower compartment, if there
ever was a moment of sheer terror in my heart this was it!. I started
checking the engine and found that the newly installed PSS shaft seal was
leaking and it wasn't just a small leak. We shut down the engine so I could
get a better look at the shaft but seeing as the prop, prop shaft, shaft seal and
engine where installed by a mechanic I had little knowledge of how a
mechanical shaft seal worked at the time and didn't know that by loosening
the set screws inside the stainless steel rotor flange and pushing the rotor
back up against the rubber bellows and then re-tightening the set-screws
would have stopped the leak. So we restarted the engine and headed back to
Ferry Point Marina where the good folks there called in some of there yard
crew on a Sunday (A really Great Marina) and hauled me back out of the water
onto dry land.
Part of the research I did the next day on mechanical
shaft seals was to email PYI, Inc makers of this type of shaft seal and
asked them what happened, one of the technicians called me Monday afternoon
and told me the only way it could have happen was the stainless steel rotor
flange was not securely tightened to the shaft. There are two double sets of
Allen head screws one on top of the other. One tightens onto the shaft and
the other tightens down over the first Allen screw.
We got the shaft seal fixed, re-launched the boat and
headed home that Wednesday. The two day trip went smoothly however when we
went out again on Sunday the 11th of November, the shaft key and bolt that
bolts the shaft to the engine coupling flew out and we lost power to the
prop, luckily the PSS shaft rotor was tight this time or the entire shaft
with prop could have backed completely out of the cutlass bearing and then I
would have had a really big leak in my boat. I've had the original mechanic repair
both problems but I now suspect that the shaft alignment might be off and
I've scheduled another mechanic to come in and re-evaluate the engine
install. In the mean time I just got the bill from the mechanic
for the final engine checkout.
Second Opinion
I called in a mechanic at the Cobb Island marina to
trouble shoot the problem with the shaft. He found that the alignment gap
changes as the couplings are rotated he told me that the boat needs to be
hauled for further inspection.
April 2008
Well after having the boat towed and hulled out last fall
to another marina with an engine mechanic on hand I was finally able to have
that new qualified mechanic find and repair the problem with the prop shaft
last month. It appears that the engine was indeed way out of alignment so
much so that the cutlass bearing had to be replaced after less then 25 hours
of engine running time. Also according to the PYI inc. website; boats with
less then a 12 knot keel need to have a vent installed onto the shaft seal.
The vent consist of a tube running from a barbed hose fitting on the shaft
seal to above the water line. This vent keeps air pockets from forming
inside the shaft seal allowing sea water to flow through it keeping
the parts lubricated and cool during rotation. For faster boats over 12
knots I would have to run seawater from an installed T fitting on my raw
water cooling system running from the manifold down to a barbed fitting on
the shaft seal. As you can see below the place on the shaft where the vent
hose fitting should be has been caped. I will replace this cap with a barbed
hose fitting and vent the shaft seal above the water line.
Pack-less Shaft Seal with capped vent fitting and leaking
profusely.
Shaft seal leaking, emergency haul out and bolt missing from shaft coupling.
April 22, 2008
I called PYI Inc. and spoke with one of the technicians
about the problem I had with the shaft. He said that they do not recommend
capping the shaft seal as was done with mine apparently many owners of the
shaft seal forgot to burp the seal after spring launching, also in rough
seas the shaft seal would sometimes form air pockets and that venting the
seal would prevent this allowing water to always flow into the shaft seal .
However the technician said that my boat has the prop mounted close to the
where the shaft exits out of the boat and when the prop turns it actually
sucks water out of the shaft seal and cutlass bearing leaving them
both dry so just venting the shaft seal wouldn't work in this case. If the
prop was far enough away from the boat and mounted on a strut then venting
would work because the prop wouldn't be close enough to the stern end of
where the shaft exits out of the boat to suck the water out from the seal
and cutlass bearing. I now have to run raw water into the shaft seal.
I've ordered a kit from PYI that Tee's raw water from the manifold cooling
system down to the shaft seal. Once I install this fix I'll post pictures of
the repair.
Worn cutlass bearing removed after 25 hours of engine use.
T from engine raw water cooling line.
Raw water for cooling and lubricating the Shaft Seal and
cutlass bearing.
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