Charley Morgan
Charley E. Morgan (November 17, 1929 - January 7, 2023) was a legendary American sailboat racer and designer. He was best known as the founder of Morgan Yacht Corporation. Early life Morgan was born in Chicago November 1929 and raised in Florida. Morgan built the yacht Brisote and completed a St. Petersburg, Florida to Havana, Cuba race with Bruce Bidwell. Morgan attended the University of Tampa and took a job with Johnson Sails, located at the Jean Street Shipyard on the Hillsborough River. In 1952 he founded Morgan Racing Sails in Tampa, FL. While making sails Morgan met yacht designer George Luzier, who got him interested in designing boats. Racing In 1957, Morgan, along with Charlie Hunt, designed and built Brisote, a 31-foot plywood yawl. After successfully appealing disqualification due to a lack of engine, he entered the Havana race and took second in Brisote's division. In 1960 Jack Powell commissioned Morgan to build the 40 foot centerboard fiberglass yawl Paper Tiger.. The "famously successful" Paper Tiger won the SORC Southern Ocean Racing Conference in 1961 and 1962. Morgan Yachts Unable to find a builder to manufacture the Tiger Cub, a smaller version of Paper Tiger, Morgan founded the Morgan