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.

1970 Morgan as is before we purchased it.