Projects

Since purchasing my Morgan Out Island 41, , I have under taken a number of projects to renew and enhance her comfort and ease of use. I feel these are things that many fellow Out Island 41 owners - as well as other boat owners - may benefit from. This will be an on going process - some are finished, some sort of work and need some more refining. Enjoy and please let me hear from you.

Morgan Out Island 41 Manual - While I received two copies of the manual for my Morgan - no small feat on a 21 year old boat - I was not really satisfied with it. It had the looks of a 21 year old manual and I figured, being as anal as I am, I could do it better. I first scanned in the text pages using OCR to convert the scanned images into MS Word. This works great except that it deletes all formatting -so I went through it all and reformatted it to match the original. Next I scanned in all the images and saved them as bitmaps. Using a program called Raster Vector, I converted the files from bitmap to a dxf format. DXF is a format that AutoCAD can import. I next imported each drawing into AutoCad2000 and redrew each drawing, line for line. I then converted the individual text sections and all the drawings into PDF files which I then merged together into one file and added a PDF index - the Morgan Out Island 41 Manual - caution: it is 3.14 mb! Just in case you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader (a free reader for PDF files), you can download it here.

Polar Plot - ever wondered which heading your Out Island 41 sailed the best under. This polar plot was found on the Internet and cleaned up and is now available as a PDF file.

New Deck - When I purchased my 1979 Morgan Out Island 41 in 2000, the deck was pretty worn out. The non-skid areas were worn down to the point that they no longer had any grip. On the rest of the deck surfaces, the gel coat had oxidized to a point on no return. Plus most of the deck was covered with spider cracks. Drastic measures were called for!

Water Tank - In February 2003 the main water tank (132 gallons) on my 1979 Morgan Out Island developed a leak. I removed the wall exposing the tank and found numerous corrosion holes on the front of the tank. Water was leaking from behind the tank as well, so it was obvious that there were other leaks present. Replacing the tank seemed to be the best thing.

Charging System - My Morgan came with a 45 amp alternator and a 50 amp charger - and a dead house battery. I wanted more power from my house batteries and a quicker way to charge them.

Electrical System - My Morgan came with a few DC and AC circuits - plus the wiring did not meet current code - so I ripped it all out and rewired the boat. I added a number of extra circuits and a couple of neat features as well.

Plumbing System - I am blessed with two heads on my Morgan - each was equipped with a 15 gallon bladder holding tank. The forward tank became permeated in early 2003, so I decided to replace it.

Fuel System - With the addition of the Genie Diesel Generator (see Charging System), I did some neat tricks with the fuel lines to make it easier to prime the Perkins power plant.

Wind Generator - While this is part of the charging system, I am listing this separate due to the mounting of the generator.

Mast Camera - When I purchased Annabelle, I expected to be sailing solo. The auto-pilot could steer the boat while I was down below, and I could see what was beside me out of the ports - but what about what was in front of me?! My solution was to mount a waterproof, wide angle, low light level camera at the top of the mast, with a display at the navigation station.

Sewing - If it is green Sunbrella® and on Annabelle, then I sewed it! Projects have ranged from sail covers and dingy cover to plastic windows for the hard top cockpit.

Digital Windlass - Thinking I would be sailing alone, I added a digital readout to my Simpson Lawrence 900GD electric windlass to tell me how much chain rode I had out.

LED Spreader Lights - I replaced my 4 incandescent spreader lights (4 Amps each) with 4 10W LED lights (1 Amp) each - less current, more light!

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