An email from a legend.

Today, as I was surfing the net, I came across a quote in google that "Nelson/Merek did NOT design this vessel..."

I had seen this come up in a forum before, and hoped to get to the bottom of it. So, I found Charley Morgan's email address in Florida and posed the question. Here's the copy of the email & reply a couple of hours later:

From: Jim Cochran [mailto:mxsailor@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 12:17 PM
To: Charley@charleymorgan.com
Subject: The 43 CC mid to late 80s

Dear Charley,

The 43 CC mid to late 80s
I am restoring one of these boats.
There is much discussion about who designed this boat. Could you clear
up this issue?

Thanks,
Jim Cochran

proud owner
33 O/I 1973
43 CC 1987
San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico

From: charley@charleymorgan.com
Subject: RE: The 43 CC mid to late 80s
Date: July 8, 2008 11:51:10 AM GMT-07:00
To: mxsailor@gmail.com
Reply-To: charley@charleymorgan.com

Jim,

The model is not my design.

It has always been my understanding that the design was by Nelson & Merrick, but since I was long since retired from the scene, I cannot be certain. Nelson & Merrick was a top-flight design firm.

From first hand accounts by those who delivered some of this model to the charter fleets, they were fast, seaworthy and well behaved. I believe that Catalina made a variant or two from the basic design.

Hope this is some help to you. Cheers and smooth sailing ~ Charley Morgan


Charles E.(Charley) Morgan

And although I didn't get an absolute answer, I feel like I'm closer to the truth than the guy who keeps saying this boat wasn't... etc. BTW, this person never does reveal WHO he thinks did the design. I know that the same hull was used for the Morgan 44, and that N/M did design the Catalina 42 (Catalina had just bought Morgan Yachts around the mid-80s), of which there are over 1,000 hulls. I wonder if N/M will answer this question? Check back.