# North American 40 by Morgan



## Magic_Moments (May 15, 2003)

or Morgan NA 40 
I went and took a quick look at one of these last weekend at the end of of a day of looking at boats when I should have been doing other things. Anyways...
I am interested in learning more about these.
It is a 40 foot boat with a 12''7" Beam and allegedly a 38''4"LWL(I suspect less, but maybe it is), 17000lb displacement 7''3" draft. Airex core in hull and deck built in 1979. Its a race boat somewhat converted to cruising.

I am a somewhat casual sailor. I like to go fast, but I also like to sail comfortably and I am mostly out on weekends and summer vacations. I am sailing in Washington and British Columbia so depth is not an issue, but light air is. 
I do have asperations of someday going out into the Pacific down to Mexico or maybe across to see whats on the other side, but for now I will be local until the boat is paid for and finances are in order etc(Plus my insurance says I can''t for past Cape Scott or Cape Flattery or more than 15 miles offshore).

I know not many of these were built, but I am wondering what anyone knows regarding good and bad points or problems with these.

Ken


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## mtuckerb (Jan 15, 2010)

*What did you find?*

Ken,
Did you ever find out more about the North American 40? I'm going to put an offer on one (tomorrow?) but find precious little on the web about them. Where did you see that they used an airex core?


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## timssail (Jun 2, 2009)

*Na 40*

I've been cruising/racing on an NA 40 for eight years. From what I know there are about a dozen left. They range in price and disrepair. The hull needs to have stringers installed to reinforce them length-wise. Very nice for cruising comfort and competitive racing. We have a one-design fleet here in Metro Detroit. John Barbour is the local authority on NA 40's.


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## fredrchrds (Feb 8, 2011)

can anyone tell me the headroom in the North 
american 40?
Thanks


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## nadopine (Jun 15, 2016)

*Re: Na 40*



timssail said:


> I've been cruising/racing on an NA 40 for eight years. From what I know there are about a dozen left. They range in price and disrepair. The hull needs to have stringers installed to reinforce them length-wise. Very nice for cruising comfort and competitive racing. We have a one-design fleet here in Metro Detroit. John Barbour is the local authority on NA 40's.


Would you please provide more details on the NA 40' hull stringer requirement? Is this hull specific or fleet specific?


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## paulk (Jun 2, 2000)

Sounds like these boats have been raced (that's what they were supposed to do) and have had their backstays torqued up. This tends to drive the mast down through the step and bend the boat into a bananna shape. Doing this over long periods (these boats are 30-some years old now) tends to weaken things, so they bend more than they used to. This is not good because the flexing may lead to the deck trying to peel away from the hull, cracks, leaks, and other problems. Stringers added to the inside of the hull would help keep it from bending so much. They could be added to the outside of the hull too, which might be easier, but that would not likely be very pretty or very fast.


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