| I believe these are a Charlie Morgan design. They used to be build
in St.Petersburg Fla, home of Gulfstar, Irwin, Morgan, Watkins and
about a dozen other mfgs. The hulls were nicely done and the finish
work was done by the owner and therefore was as good as he was.
This was about 5 to7 years ago and so the molds are that much older
and the crew has more than likely changed as often as the tide.
Take a ride to the site before you make a decision and understand
that building the hull is the less timeconsuming part of building
a boat. Also the less expensive.
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| Yep, that's a Morgan design -- the old Morgan 45.
CCA all the way. Spent most of my youth cruising aboard one.
Full keel, heavy displacement, but moves very nicely,
even in light air. Hull speed was almost 9, and
properly trimmed, they can do 6.5 to 7 knots at 30 degrees
apparent. Only 12 or so built by Morgan before he sold
his first company to finance "Heritage," his unsuccessful
America's Cup contender.
When the boats were built by Morgan, they were
very nicely finished -- very solid. I never cared
much for the Starrat incarnation, mostly because
I saw too many hatchet jobs on a boat I very much
love. If you ever cruise Narragansett Bay, look
for a white ketch named "Allez." She is one elagant
lady. The rig is not original, but the rest is.
Even the gel-coat.
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| I saw that ad, too, and chuckled. It appears in one form or another every
couple years. Perhaps the molds are tired, or maybve just paid off.
Anyway, for only $8K you probably can't expect to get much. Corners may
be cut in layup, thickness at key stress points, quality of resin
(undoubtedly off-brand polyester at that price) and any number of things.
For instance, you might have to pay them to put in temporary bulkheads
just to cart the bare hull to your yard.
It's possible to do, and save plenty of bucks, but watch out for the
gotchas, and recognize that first $8K provides a hull shape and little
more!
J.
(If you do work from a bare hull sometime in the future, keep us posted.)
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