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Charles E. Morgan
Treasure Island, Florida, United States
Co-Founder, together with Bruce Bidwell, of the MORGAN YACHT CORPORATION, Designer and builder of yachts, sailor, writer.
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Wednesday, January 24, 2007

The Men of Morgan mission, - "Our Job"

As Morgan employees left their lunch room and entered the main plant, my partner Bruce and I had a 4' x 8' sign made and placed over that door. If my memory serves us correctly it read:

Our Jobs
The definition of the word YACHT is from the Dutch word JACHT, indicating the service differences between a vessel used for work, commerce and trade, from that of a vessel created just for the personal pleasure of their owners.
If all of us do our jobs as well can, our work will bring pleasure to our owners, - then the boats we build can be - with pardonable pride - called YACHTS.
Charley Morgan & Bruce Bidwell

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Care and feeding of Morgans, - Making your Morgan worth more and, - Rescue and resurrection of neglected or damaged Morgans

For some time it has been a mystery to many of us as to why some owners let the condition of their yachts go down and along with it the value of their own yacht and, the value of Morgans in general.
Of course it is understandable that health, changes in employment, finances, family dissolution, and death, along with the increasing cost of boatyard maintenance are all valid causal factors for neglect in many cases.
On the other hand, there seems to be and increase in the number of these boats in need of tender loving care. Hopefully through these pages, together we will be able to rekindle and encourage a new, strong, sense of "Pride of Ownership", among Morgan owners everywhere, especially among owners of neglected Morgans.

As part of that idea we will be dedicating a page in a forum/discussion format, with a focus on the care and feeding of Morgans, arranged to accumulate ideas, fixes for known problems, sources, for needed items etc., all linked to those sites that have a version of this idea for the different Morgan models. Hopefully everyone will share ideas, suggestions and input their constructive comments on this subject.
In and upcoming Blog post we will be introducing owners who have customized their Morgans to a true "Shipshape and Bristol Fashion", - stories we feel will gladden the hearts of all Morgan Owners. Point such owners to us so we can get them in these pages.
Considering how many thousands of dollars it would now take to buy a new boat of, - take your pick of any make or model, - to provide similar sailing characteristics, accommodations, utility and the cruisability your Morgan has, it seems to me that, "enlightened self-interest" in maintaining one's Morgan to normal, or better yacht standards, would be the order of the day. With everyone's help this forum should become and inspiring and helpful function for everyone.

As of this writing, no one knows how many Morgan Yachts were lost or critically damaged in the unfortunate round of severe hurricanes over the last several years.
Through this site and, with help from all sites Morgan, we hope to chronicle and list for the record, all lost morgans and set up a web based resource for communicating and maintaining a dialog exchange for assisting and encouraging anyone rescuing and restoring damaged or derelict Morgans, along with a place to record their efforts and progress.

Cheers and Smooth sailing, ~ Charley Morgan

Sunday, January 14, 2007

The new Morgan CHANTYMAN on line ...

Greetings to all Morgan Groups and Members,

On this second post to this blog, I want anounce that my wife Maurine and I are taking steps to create a cohesive, more inclusive, easily accessable, web and cyberspace based, linkage and information source for the extened FAMILY of folks who own, sail, love and care for their MORGAN YACHTS now scattered around the seven seas.

We expect to achieve this through a series of web based sites and communication methods that so many of our owners are now using and are familiar with.

As we have been searching through our boxes of arcived materials, we are awed and truly humbled, by the now forty year old "wake ", left astern by our owners in their MORGANS, leaving stories that beg to be told, those THEN, NOW, and those yet to unfoldTHEN stories of the future, - real life saga(s), of sailors, families and friends who have, are, or are planing to, live their dream of life and adventure afloat in their MORGANS; - those "Good Little Ships" that continue fulfilling their promise to their owners.

Visit our central web site http://www.charleymorgan.com/ to read online excerpts, photographs and history fron the original Morgan CHANTYMAN, together with new news and stories about the exploits of MORGAN owners and their boats. Cheers, ~ Charley Morgan

Saturday, January 13, 2007

The Sailor's way of life

As this is my first blog posting I want to comment about the wonderful time of life we live in.

Imagine, sitting here at my computer and being able to reach out, virtually simultaneously and instantly, to a host of friends, owners, past and current, scattered all over our Globe, through this remarkable electronic tool and blogging software that permits us to stay in touch at a very intimate level, including sending pictures and news, all of which allows all of us to taste and live this incredible "gift of life" much more fully, - and me learning how to become a blogger at 77 years of age.

I look forward to many future occasions to visit with you to pass along as much as I can about Morgan Yacht Corporation and the "Good Little Ships" you own, sail and love.

Good Luck, Godspeed and Smooth sailing, ~ Charley Morgan