Morgan Out Island 49 Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

Design Brief & Intent

The core philosophy of the Out Island series, and the 49 in particular, was Charley Morgan's conviction that true seaworthiness did not require a deep, draft-heavy racing underbody. He argued that the ability to cross oceans was only half the battle; the ability to safely navigate thin coastal waters and find shelter in shallow gunkholes was equally vital to a cruiser’s safety. Consequently, the Out Island 49 was designed with a massive 15-foot beam and a shallow-draft full keel, sacrificing knife-edge windward performance to achieve unparalleled stability, safety, and interior volume.

While competing manufacturers of the era, such as Gulfstar with its early charter-focused models, or CSY and Whitby with their heavy-displacement passage makers, fought for market share, the Out Island 49 carved out a niche as an ultimate floating home. The interior finish speaks directly to this focus on liveaboard comfort. Morgan outfitted the cabins with extensive hand-rubbed, oiled teak veneer panels, solid teak trim, and a classic teak cabin sole. The result is a warm, secure, and deeply traditional interior cabin structure that feels robust and reassuring in heavy weather. It is highly compartmentalized but offers headroom of over six feet four inches throughout, making it an incredibly livable option for larger crews.

Variations & Configurations

The Morgan Out Island 49 was designed primarily as a masthead ketch, a rigging choice that aligns with the era's preference for split sail plans on larger vessels. The ketch rig divides the total sail area into smaller, more easily handled sails, reducing winch loads and making short-handed sailing manageable for a cruising couple. It also keeps the vertical clearance of the rig lower than a comparable sloop, which is a significant advantage when negotiating bridges and navigating coastal waterways 2.

Beneath the waterline, the boat features a long, encapsulated full keel drawing roughly five feet three inches. This keel contains internal lead ballast, entirely eliminating the structural risk of failing keel bolts. The rudder is skeg-hung and well-protected from grounding impacts, consistent with the boat's shallow-water design brief.

The interior layout standardizes on a three-cabin, two-head configuration. The hallmark of this design is the walk-through passage connecting the main saloon to the massive, full-beam owner’s stateroom aft. This layout represented a major refinement over the early, non-connected flush-deck designs of the smaller Out Island models. It provides privacy for guests in the forward V-berth and midships cabin while maintaining direct, secure interior transit throughout the boat.

Sailing Performance & Handling

Evaluating the sailing characteristics of the Out Island 49 requires adjusting one’s expectations away from modern performance cruiser metrics. With a displacement of 43,000 pounds and a low Sail Area to Displacement ratio of 11.91, this boat is undeniably underpowered in light air. In winds under ten knots, the vessel behaves more like a motor-sailer, relying on its diesel auxiliary engine to make meaningful headway. However, once the breeze fills in past fifteen knots, the hull's true purpose becomes apparent.

With a Comfort Ratio of 40.28, the Out Island 49 delivers an exceptionally comfortable and heavily dampened motion in a seaway. The heavy hull resists rapid, jerky pitching and rolling, keeping crew fatigue to a absolute minimum during multi-day passages. This stable motion is complemented by a Capsize Screening Ratio of 1.71, which is comfortably below the recognized safety threshold of 2.0, indicating high ultimate stability and excellent resistance to capsize in extreme conditions. The hull’s Displacement to Length ratio of 241.44 confirms its moderate-to-heavy cruising displacement character. When reaching in a stiff breeze under a ketch sail configuration—especially using the "jib and jigger" combination of genoa and mizzen sail—the boat tracks beautifully, requiring very little work from the helm or autopilot.

Market Snapshot & Economics

Because only six hulls of the Out Island 49 were ever produced, the model is exceptionally scarce on the brokerage market. When one does appear, it typically trades at a significant value relative to its overall footprint, offering massive volume per dollar. However, buyers must approach these purchases with clear-eyed economic realism.

The low initial acquisition cost of a classic Out Island 49 is almost always offset by the necessity of a comprehensive refit. Because these boats were manufactured in the late 1970s, many are sold by aging owners or have spent years languishing in tropical anchorages. A prospective buyer should expect to invest heavily in modernizing the vessel's primary systems. Because of the boat's physical scale, the cost of sails, standing rigging, marine electronics, and structural repairs can easily equal or exceed the purchase price of the boat itself.

Known Issues & Triage 3

While the hand-laid fiberglass hull laminate of the Out Island 49 is thick enough to resist catastrophic structural damage, the model is subject to several age-related issues that require careful marine surveying:

• Hull Blistering: Like many Morgan hulls of this production era, the gelcoat is susceptible to osmotic blistering 5. While these blisters are rarely structural threat due to the heavy layup, curing a badly blistered hull is a labor-intensive yard project involving peeling, drying, and applying an epoxy barrier coat.
• Fuel and Water Tanks: The original metal fuel and water tanks are buried deep beneath the cabin sole within the hull grid. Over the decades, localized corrosion can lead to leaks. Replacing these tanks is a notorious project that often requires cutting away sections of the teak cabin sole and interior joinery to extract the old units.
• Deck Core Delamination: The decks are balsa-cored, and fifty years of exposure can lead to water intrusion around stanchions, chainplates, track fittings, and hatches. Soft, spongy deck areas indicate delaminated balsa cores that must be cut open, cleared out, and rebuilt with epoxy and marine-grade plywood or closed-cell foam.
• Mast Step & Compression: The immense load of the mainmast step can sometimes cause the supporting grid beneath the cabin sole to compress or decay, particularly if fresh water has leaked down the mast. This compression can cause a slight sag in the deck and make interior doors difficult to latch.

Modernization & Upgrades

Modern owners of the Out Island 49 are focus on turning this classic hull into an autonomous, off-grid liveaboard platform. Key upgrades consistently found on well-maintained examples include:

• Electrical System Upgrades: The massive interior volume and deep storage lockers under berths make the 49 an ideal candidate for large Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery banks. Owners routinely couple these lithium conversions with high-output alternators, modern inverter/chargers, and massive solar arrays. The wide deck space, davits, and custom cockpit bimini frames provide ample real estate for mounting high-wattage solar panels.
• Drivetrain & Engine Bed Refits: The standard propulsion unit, the legendary Perkins 4-236 diesel, is a highly reliable four-cylinder engine. However, fifty years of service can deteriorate the fiberglass engine beds and engine mounts. Refitting these boats often involves hoisting the engine to rebuild the structural engine beds, replace the shaft seals, and occasionally repower with a modern, more fuel-efficient diesel.
• Sail Handling Modernization: To make the ketch rig easier to manage short-handed, owners heavily invest in heavy-duty roller furling systems for the genoa and main sails, along with lazy jacks and stack packs for the main and mizzen booms. This setup allows all sail handling to be completed safely from the center cockpit.

The Verdict

The Morgan Out Island 49 is a specialized, ultra-rare cruiser that excels as a secure, high-volume, shoal-draft liveaboard. It is not designed to win races, nor will it sail efficiently in light breezes. However, for cruisers seeking a solid, ocean-capable vessel with an incredibly comfortable motion and an expansive layout that behaves like a much larger yacht, the Out Island 49 is a highly practical, enduring classic.

Pros: 2

• Immense interior volume and headroom, offering apartment-like liveaboard comfort.
• Extremely gentle and comfortable motion in heavy seas due to high comfort ratio.
• Shoal-draft capability allows safe entry into shallow bays and tropical anchorages.
• The ketch rig offers a versatile, easily managed, split sail plan for short-handed couples.
• Stout, heavily laid fiberglass hull structure with an encapsulated lead ballast keel 3.

Cons:

• Underpowered in light winds, requiring frequent motor-sailing or reliance on auxiliary power.
• Poor close-hauled windward performance due to shallow full keel and high windage.
• High scarcity makes finding parts, original diagrams, or sisterships for reference difficult.
• Replacing aged, original metal tanks requires intrusive surgery to the cabin sole.
• Older models require significant financial investment to address deck cores, wiring, and cosmetics.