Following Rob's lead...here is my boat:
HALCYON is a 1983 Morgan 45-4 designed by Nelson-Marek of Whitbread and America’s Cup fame. Morgan basically took a Nelson-Marek design that won the Transpac race and put a cruising interior into the hull. They reused to orginal hull forms for almost 30 years in a variety of boats, including the Morgan 43, the Catalina-Morgan 43 Center Cockpit and Catalina 42. From pure ocean greyhound to a super-popular big cruiser is quite a run.
She has a 32 horsepower Universal diesel engine, which is very small for such a big boat, but she was intended to be on the "racer" end of racer-cruiser. She sails much fast than she motors, but the Kubota block is reliable and easy to maintain.
She has a roller-furling headsail, fully battened mainsail and a large battery of other sails. She is a large boat with large racing-style sails and an IOR hull design. She will move quickly, heel steadily and point close to the wind, but she will tend to be bit rolly when running downwind without a spinnaker.
Draft is variable with a long centerboard. With the board up, draft is 4 feet 9 inches. Full depth with the board down 7 feet 5 inches, but the extra wetted surface tends to slow her down a bit.
Mast height is 61 feet of very bendy aluminum, which in theory would make it fit under most of the the bridges in the ICW. With a working sail area is 902 square feet, I'd rather go around than motor down the ditch.
HALCYON displaces 22,500 pounds, about 44% is in ballast. While heavy compared to modern boats, it still fairly light for it’s length and sail area. SA/D is 18.8, D/WL is 202, making her statistics firmly in the “racer” range. She has fuel tankage for 100 gallons and water tanks for 200 gallons, all part of the ocean racing heritage.
The interior is beautiful, with a combination of teak, holly and ash, but a bit dark by modern boat standards The only place where fiberglass is visible is in the heads. The galley is port side against the bulkhead, which was a sea-going design so that you could heave-to on a starboard tack while cooking and the hot liquids would be on the low side and not at risk of spilling on the cook. There is a huge v-berth cabin, a large double cabin under the cockpit and two pilot berths for watchstanders in the salon. There is also two full length settees, one of which can expand to a double.
She sails fast on all points of sail, easily out-pacing most cruising boats. She can keep up with modern mono-hull racers upwind, but she is not a planing design and the modern racers will leave her behind downwind.
There is a large bridge deck forward of the cockpit before getting to the companionway, you have to cross the traveler to go below. This was considered a plus for ocean sailing when designed, but is inconvenient and a bit dangerous compared to modern companionways. The companionway ladder is also very steep, which permits great headroom and easy access to the engine, but is not as safe or convenient as a smaller ladder.
She has a large rigid vang which also acts as a support for the boom, this eliminates the need for a topping lift.
Her anchor windlass is manually operated by cranking with a large handle which is located in the anchor locker, it is difficult and ripe for an upgrade.
The boat has rod rigging instead of conventional wire. It's lighter, stronger and less maintenance than wire, but is more expensive and harder to replace.
All in all, it's a good sailing blue water and coastal cruising boat.
