Hi, I own Prima Donna a lovely Morgan Giles 30. I bought her in November 2006 from Mike Jones Downing who kept her at Usk Mouth Sailing Club near Newport South Wales. I sailed her home to Falmouth after replacing the main bulkhead which had rotted out.
Other than that she was seaworthy and she is a really lovely boat who always looks after me. Since then I have moved back to my home town of Hythe on Southampton water and I belong to Hythe Southampton sailing club. I am really a novice but I wanted a reliable sea boat and she is certainly that. I would be very interested to be in touch with other owners and maybe even meet up with any along the south coast area? I currently have a few problems I have engine trouble, we have a small beta 2 cylinder which is suffering intermittent failure don’t know what it is and am fast running out of ideas. Also I have a crack which has developed visible in the lazarette right at the base of the bulkhead just below the position where the rudder stock tube exits down into the engine compartment before it drops through the hull. If anyone has any ideas or has experienced the same thing I would be pleased to hear from you. I attach a recent picture of PD on the round the Island this year. Look forward to hearing from any of you.
Hi Peter,
Your boat looks great and I envy you keeping it near Hythe. I have owned an MG30 TSAYOT since 2001and keep her in the Solway. She was built in December 1977 and fitted out the following year. If you send me your email address I’ll send you some photographs of her so you can compare. My email address is gka…@btinternet.com
Re your engine although you don’t mention the symptons i would contact Beta Marine who are usually very helpful and would give you some advice about what to check.
Re the aft bulkhead I noticed that each of the three bulkheads on TSAYOT are each made of two pieces of marine ply with a vertical joint on the centreline. Maybe this is what is showing in the aft bulkhead just in front of the rudder stock tube. The aft bulkhead on my boat coincides with where the rudder stock tube meets the hull and the bulkhead is cut in an inverted ‘U’ to allow the tube to pass slightly under the bulkhead.The bulkhead is not bonded to the tube but has a space around the tube to allow fuel lines and bilge pump tubing to pass through. As the hull of the MG30 is so well laid up and so strong I doubt if the hull is flexing so as to cause the bulkhead to crack. Perhaps if there is a vertical centre joint it is just some fibreglass laminate that is debonding due to insufficient resin wetness when laid up.
Hope this helps.
One day I may do the ‘Round the Island Race’ in TSAYOT. I’ve only done it once before and that was in an old ex ‘Admirals Cupper’ which was based on the Hamble River opposite ‘The Bugle’ in about 2003.
Kind regards,
Graham
Hi Peter,
Lovely boat and well done taking part in the Round the Island. I’m
currently restoring Vagabond in Shoreham and intend keeping her in the
Solent. I would be great to meet up, drop me a line on
c…@mistral.co.uk
Cornelis