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While contemplating the sorry state of this little blog, totally due to my ignoring it over the past few months, I came upon an interesting item in the site stats – someone has been searching for info on the Heritage 1 Tonner design.

The boat was built by Charlie Morgan in St Pete Florida, after he had sold/left/been booted from, the company he had founded, Morgan Yachts. It was an interim boat project while he worked on various cruising designs that were produced in the late 70s, early 80s.

Although it was sold as a Morgan design, the Heritage 1 Ton was really a Doug Peterson. The lines taken from a one-off Peterson built by Morgan and a few guys in 1975, the year before he launched Heritage Yachts.

While commissioning the Morgan-built Peterson in Stamford Ct, I met the guy who is my oldest friend in this silly business of sailing boats for a living. An Australian, like many other BNs of that era, he recently swung by for a visit on his most recent trip back to the States. A late night of tales and rum ensued – too bad we had no one but ourselves to tell the stories to.

The first Heritage 1 Tons were launched in ’76. The changes, that I recall, from the earlier Peterson design were as follows: a slightly extended stern that added perhaps a foot to the LOA without affecting the LWL, double spreader mast instead of single spreader set-up and a keel with a large fillet to the leading edge where the lead met the canoe body. (not sure why Morgan added the fillet as all the studies at the time showed a sharp transition between canoe body and keel was more efficient) The boat I raced on, the one in my previous post, had a slightly taller rig than the earlier boats, and a larger rudder – it was also the first Heritage with wheel steering.

To be continued:

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