# 1974 Morgan "One Ton" What is this?



## Bruce_L (Jun 19, 2012)

I saw this boat listed here: 1974 Morgan Sailboat One Ton sailboat for sale in Maryland

I'm curious, it is listed as a 1974 Morgan One-Ton

Can't find much information about it.

Can anybody add anything here about this boat and its qualities, keel, sailing performance, weather handling, etc...?

Interior seems rather simple too, I like that.

The shape of the stern/transom is not very typical.

Thanks Everyone! Bruce


----------



## jppp (Jul 13, 2008)

MORGAN 36T sailboat specifications and details on sailboatdata.com


----------



## overbored (Oct 8, 2010)

Great boat for the day. I sailed on one when I was a kid. Remember that the genoa was huge. we were the fastest thing on the water and even when we weren't we looked faster than anyone. Black hull and white under the water. no bottom paint, kept her in a boat bath.


----------



## MarkCK (Jan 4, 2009)

overbored said:


> Great boat for the day. I sailed on one when I was a kid. Remember that the genoa was huge. we were the fastest thing on the water and even when we weren't we looked faster than anyone. Black hull and white under the water. no bottom paint, kept her in a boat bath.


Not meaning to highjack a thread. But what's a boat bath and how does that keep the bottom clean?


----------



## SloopJonB (Jun 6, 2011)

That boat has a custom stern extension by the look of it. If it's condition is anything like the pictures it's a bargain. It's a fairly early IOR one tonner with the usual idiosyncrasies of that design rule. Charley Morgan was a great designer and I've always liked his race boats from that era. I'd expect it to go to weather like a train.


----------



## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

I have spent a fair amount of time on these boats. They are complex to categorize, and this one has been extremely strangely modified. (more on that later)

As other have said, these were very good boats for their day. Compared to the boats that preceded them they went upwind very well. Our toughest competitors were a Ranger 37, and the C&C 39's, we could generally beat them to the first mark in flat water. They would clean our clock in any kind of a chop. Off the wind the Morgan one ton had huge chutes and so we could point very deep. That's the good news. 

The bad news is that boats were a little unpredictable. You would heel them and they seemed to be completely under control and then suddenly you weren't, rounding up or broaching quite dramatically. On most boats of that era you could feel the grip starting to go, but that was usually not the case here. Whatever clue you had that things were about to go terribly wrong were short and barely perceptable, and you only had a moment to jamb the helm before all hell broke loose. 

Because of that, these were boats which really needed to be tiller steered in order to percieve the 'moment before', and quickly react. This boat has a wheel which seems like a far worse than bad idea. 

Structurally the keels were a problem. With the minimal internal framing of the era, and the steeply raked back profile and small contact area made these extremely vulnerable in a grounding. 

Other bad news includes that the hardware of the day was not quite up to the task and so required a lot of physical strength to sail these boats hard or in changeable conditions. It may have been updated some since this boat has had some money put into it. 

Obviously the ad was written by someone who knows little or nothing about boats, then there is what appears to be a strange transom extension....I remember these boats having pinched ends but nothing like that. In my mind, that is another bad idea, at least here on the Bay. These boats were not very good in a chop and a transom extension likewould only make them pitch more than they did. 

And then there is the price issue. This is a tough one, this boat appears to be clean and in nice shape. It has very minimal equipment and will need to have additional sails, since these are boats that need a pretty big sail inventory, minimally a #1, #2 and a blade. And perhaps you might argue that the price reflects that, and I would agree except that to me the way a boat sails should be a prime consideration and its hard to say what a boat that sails like this is good for: these are not good light air boats, they certainly are not resonable heavy air boats; They are not easily handled daysailers, they are not reasonable cruisers and they are no longer competitive race boats. They are a little deep for the Bay yet the design does not really take advantage of that draft. It would be not be a real joy to own and would be a bear of a boat to sell. 

In any event, I personally like Charlie Morgan's design work, but if I were looking for an old Morgan IOR boat, I would suggest the Heritage One ton which was a much better boat on all counts. 

Jeff


----------



## sailingfool (Apr 17, 2000)

Sort of a fascinating boat...like a car wreck decorated with fresh flowers.

The touch I like most is engine controls mounted several feet in front of the wheel.


----------



## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

sailingfool said:


> Sort of a fascinating boat...like a car wreck decorated with fresh flowers.
> 
> The touch I like most is engine controls mounted several feet in front of the wheel.


Gee, I wonder why they could have been thinking when they placed the engine controls there, but wait, it would sure be a convenient place to have engine controls when you tear that darn wheel steering out and go back to a tiller.


----------



## Bruce_L (Jun 19, 2012)

SloopJonB said:


> ...That boat has a custom stern extension by the look of it...


That explain a lot, it just looks so right...as to how it sails though???


----------



## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

More likely than not the stern extension would adversely impact how the boat sailed in a chop, but make almost no change in flat water. It's simply tail fins..in other words a styling effort that adds weight where you don't want it.


----------



## overbored (Oct 8, 2010)

MarkCK said:


> Not meaning to highjack a thread. But what's a boat bath and how does that keep the bottom clean?


don"t see many these days as adding chorline to the water is somewhat frowned upon
Boat Bath | Antifouling a Boat - Available for all types of crafts


----------



## Bruce_L (Jun 19, 2012)

Jeff_H said:


> ...It's simply tail fins..in other words a styling effort that adds weight where you don't want it...


Dang, and I loved those wicked tail fins on those big Detroit rolling hulks ...

Better watch it, I'm starting to show my age here...

That had to have been a pricey modification for sure... Too bad they ditched the tiller. I've only had one turn at wheel steering as a guest on a much larger boat and I prefer a tiller myself. The wheel felt vague to me. I found it slow to react fast when needed.


----------

