Morgan Yachts 45

BoatsMorgan Yachts 45

See her sail

The Morgan Yachts 45, on the water

The fleet's own footage — the truest look at how she really moves.

Footage from Maryland School of Sailing

Is it for you?

Character

Where this design lands on the numbers a shopper trusts — read straight from her own ratios.

LivelySea-kindly

Her heavy displacement on a narrow beam gives 44 — a heavy, notably soft motion offshore.

Comfort ratio 44

CoastalBluewater

At 1.51 she sits well under the 2.0 line — a solidly ocean-capable hull for her size.

Capsize screening 1.51

LightHeavy

360 — very heavy for her waterline, a serious load-carrying cruiser.

Displacement / length 360

EasygoingPowered-up

16.8 — moderate power for her weight; steady, all-round performance.

Sail area / displacement 16.8

TenderStiff

48% of her weight is ballast — stiff, standing up well to her sails.

Ballast 48%

Built heavy and sea-kindly — a boat made to cross oceans and forgive a rough night.

Draws more than ~86% of boats her size on file

Compared with 281 boats of the same type within a quarter of her length.

What the fleet has seen

The Morgan Yachts 45, as the fleet has seen it

Derived from the videos the fleet has analysed of this model. ▶ marks open the moment aboard.

The Morgan Yachts 45 is a masthead sloop with a long keel, designed by Charles Morgan Jr. and built by Morgan Yachts from 1966 to 1970. It measures 13.9 meters LOA, with a 3.4-meter beam, 1.9-meter draft, and 11,339 kg displacement. The tooling for the Morgan 45 was later used to produce the Starrat & Jenks 45. Aboard *Rockhopper*, a Morgan 45 ketch, Captain Frank Mummert of the Maryland School of Sailing completed 16 transits of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), which he describes as primarily a motoring route, with sailing opportunities limited to larger sounds like Albemarle and Pamlico.1:24 Mummert used multiple navigation sources, including a binnacle chartplotter, the *Intracoastal Waterway Chartbook*, and AquaMaps on an iPad, supplemented by crowdsourced depth and anchorage data from ActiveCaptain and bobicw.blogspot.com.4:28

The living fleet

Sailed by the fleet

Where the fleet has filmed this boat.

Seen once across one channel of the fleet.

Basemap © Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

The record

Full specifications

The complete reference set — tap any figure to switch between metric and imperial.

Dimensions

Weights

Ballast / displacement

48.0%

Rig & sail area

Rig

Masthead Sloop

Ratios

SA / displacement

16.8

Displacement / length

359.8

Comfort ratio

44.4

Capsize screening

1.51

Hull speed

7.5 kn

Pounds / inch immersion

1235

Hull

Hull type

Long Keel

Construction

Fiberglass

Ballast type

Lead

Production

Years built

1966–1970

Units built

12

Designer

Charles Morgan Jr

Builder

Morgan Yachts

Boats like this, on the water

More boats like her, on the water

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Cabo Rico 3811.58 mSame hull family2.3 m shorterAn aft-cockpit evolution of the Tiburon 36, offering a heavy-displacement cutter platform for stable blue-water sailing

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Explorer 45 (Huntingford)13.79 mSame hull familyNear-identical lengthA long-keeled staysail ketch designed by Stan Huntingford for stable, comfortable blue-water passage making

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Morgan Yachts Out Island 4112.57 mSame hull family1.4 m shorterA prolific long-keeled masthead sloop designed by Charles Morgan Jr. that became a staple of the global charter trade

Sailing KYAN II Episode 1 from Sailing KYAN II a Morgan Out Island 41 Ketch

Whitby Boatworks 4212.80 mSame hull family1.1 m shorterAn Edward S. Brewer-designed long-keeled ketch built for offshore comfort and stability over a long production run

Discover the Legendary Whitby 42 Sailboat – Full Tour & Review0:50 from Practical Sailor

Downeaster 3811.58 mSame hull family2.3 m shorterA 1974-era cutter with a 35.4 comfort ratio, built for stable, long-distance voyaging on a heavy-displacement hull

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Are Windows Really a Good Idea in Hulls?3:58 from Lucky Pete Sailing AQUALIBRA

The family

Related models

The designs closest to hers — usually the rest of the builder's range, sometimes the same hull sold under another name.

Morgan Yachts 45-2A Henry Scheel-designed masthead sloop sharing the robust hull molds of the Morgan 46 series Morgan Yachts 45-4A Nelson-Marek masthead sloop with a performance-oriented fin keel that served as the versatile base for multiple models Morgan Yachts 35A masthead sloop with a deep 2.06-metre draft and spade rudder, built for performance and stability in deep water Morgan Yachts 452A masthead ketch with a fin keel and skeg-mounted rudder, engineered for offshore stability and steady passage-making Catalina Yachts Morgan 45A 1991 Nelson Marek design distinct from the 1966 original, featuring a partial skeg rudder and a deep keel option

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