Dear fellow Morgan Giles 30 Group members,
As most of you will now be aware, Tony Voss who did a brilliant job of
setting up and managing both the MG30 website and Google group has now
sold his yacht Santana.
Tony has now moved onto a completely different class of boat in order
to meet the demands of his planned extensive live aboard cruises and
as such felt the time was right, to pass on the management of both
the website and group to someone still involved with the class.
I met with Tony earlier today and over the coming weeks transfer of
the MG30 website to a new provider will take place. Tony will keep the
current site ‘live’ until such time that I am ready to facilitate the
new site. I look forward to hearing from members and MG30 owners on
what they would like to see on the new site.
I’m sure you will all join me in wishing Tony all the very best for
the future. We are all indebted to Tony for setting up both the
website and Google user group and his stewardship over the past number
of years.
Kind regards,
Gary
Hi Ali,
It’s funny you should mention this as Tony and I discussed the
possibility of putting the site onto WordPress which is what the
Corribee site uses. There is a wealth of advice on the Corribee site
which would take some time and effort to author, but it’s good to aim
big!
Hopefully once I get the new site up and running, owners will come
forward with descriptions of interiors, rigging, engine and any other
information they feel pertinent 🙂 Tony set the ball rolling, but any
site is only as good as the information others are willing to
contribute along with photographs etc.
Kind regards,
Gary
Hi Gary,
Very pleased to hear that you are taking over the web site.
We previously owned a Corribee and they have very good web site and would recommend a look as it works well.
We are new owners of our Mg and look forward to seeing what other owners are doing or have done with their boats.
Ali
thanks very much Tony for all you have done to date and all the best. Kieron
Happy to help if possible. Good of you to take it on.
I am looking for a bit of info from anyone who has tried using a boom strut instead of topping lift and kicker.
Would be interested in anyone who has tried one out.
Ali.
Hi all
Glad someone is taking on the job. Thanks for that. I bought Santana off Tony and am now in the process of upgrading her. I will try and take some photos of the work and hopefully we can get them on the site for others to see.
Current projects
New toe rail
New cut less bearing
new roof linings
New front hatch
reinforcing soft coach roof
recutting gel coat and polishing
resealing windows
recoating coppercoat hull
regards Ty
Hi Ty,
Good to see Santana’s new owner posting here. I’ll be very interested
to see how you get on with your list of jobs. There are quite a few
jobs that I also need to carry out on my boat Lola, but at the moment
my day job is keeping me far too busy! still mustn’t grumble as they
say…
Where abouts do you keep Santana?
Looking forward to regular updates!
Best wishes,
Gary
Hi Gary,
Santana is presently on the hard at Rye being refurbished, but we normally keep her on the Hamble.
Regards Ty
Hi Ty,
Well it looks like we have at least 3 MG 30’s on Southampton water,
almost a flotilla! I keep Lola at Marchwood Yacht Club.
Hopefully see you on the water in 2012!
Regards, Gary
Well we surely must hold a meet next season? Three Morgan Giles 30 yachts joining up at Yarmouth or Cowes? what do you think, let me know it would be fun to compare fit outs and sail in company
ps merry Christmas to all
PK
Hi Peter,
That sounds great. It seems a long way off at the moment as the snow falls.
Ty
Hi, ref list of jobs on Santana, what toe rail do you have existing? Prima Donna has an old teak toe rail, interested to know what you are doing on Santana, PD has one section that needs refurbishment, not sure what to do about it?
Hope the rest of the works go well, attach a pic of PD for interest. She is at Hythe on Southampton Water.
Hi Peter,
My original toe rail was teak. The new one will be made out of a cheaper substitute, iroko or something similar.
I’ve been told by the boatyard that it will see me out and weather down to something similar to what I had. I guess with yours it will depend on how much you have to replace. If its not too big, I would go for teak to match the rest.
Thanks for the picture of PD, its nice to see similar boats.
Hope to see you on the water in the summer we moor Santana on a mooring just before Mercury Marina, Hamble,
regards Ty
Just to say I love working with iroko.
I restored a dingy, replacing all wood apart from the transom, with new iroko. It is lovely to work with and was OK to steam for bending.
On my new boat all external wood is iroko (the cockpit gratings, seat slats and cockpit table etc.).
Also apart from being cheaper, iroko is, apparently, much better environmentally and politically. Virtually all teak comes from unsustainable logging in Burma and greases the generals’ follies. I understand iroko comes from Africa and is said to be less endangered.
There is a debate about whether to let the wood age naturally or to treat it. It is largely a matter of taste. Silvered is less work. Personally, especially with iroko I would treat it as it is not quite so durable as teak. It does look great.
We have treated our iroko with Teak Wonder and I can highly recommend it – by far the best ‘teak’ treatment. It brushes on easily – best to do regularly as it is so easy to apply. [It is a silcone-based oil.] Wash first with the cleaner that comes with it. Our woodwork has stayed almost as new, while other boats also new this year have already silvered down.
best of luck
Tony
Hi All,
Firstly, a thank you to Gary for taking over the running of the site and Tony, who had the forethought and inspiration to create such a marvellous facility for us. I must admit that I considered trying to help when Tony needed to hand the reigns on but am far to dumb with computer matters to even go near. Tony came to visit me once when I first found the site and it was one of the most enjoyable afternoons I can remember.
As a few may remember, I spent many years completely stripping to the bare hull and superstructure and rebuilding my MG30, “Grampus” which I keep in the very upper reaches of the Bristol Channel. My late father completely replaced my toe rails and we did use teak, that was in 1990 and I have managed to keep them quite pristine (boast, boast) but am tiring of many hours of varnish and opting to completely epoxy the wood and then coat with two pack International Crystal. I carried out a test piece 5 years ago and there is absolutely no sign of degradation in any way. I have now treated the hatch, doors and trim to the companion way, all built in teak by myself. Now on the matter of teak; I bought in 2 separate lots an amount of salvaged teak which had been used in school science laboratory worktops. In recent years there has been a program to strip all these out of schools and replace with chipboard covered in a plastic substitute – how logical is that, at times I think the civil service ‘et al’ have much to answer for ! On the plus side we are able to pick up the very best of timber most of which dates from years between the wars and use in our boats. I do really believe teak is the preferable material. I have used Iroko many times over the years with other boats and the most serious problem I have found is it splinters easily and when left to weather the grain sort of washes out and the piece becomes very grainy – if this makes sense. The teak which was felled before the second world war was the oldest, and natures best without doubt and hard to find today. There is an ongoing program growing “a teak” in east Africa with the first grown now being forested, it will be interesting to see how in years to come it handles, apparently a slighter lighter colour and wider grain. Incidentally, the only hang up with my ex laboratory wood is it is all 32mm thick, so some lamination is needed although I have managed to work around this.
If this helps any then I am pleased. I do have an amount of teak and mahogany still in my workshop and am getting to an age where I doubt I will use it all. I have often noticed amounts of teak also being sold on ebay and quite a reasonable price too.
Good luck and fair winds to all,
Paul Chapman.
Interesting to hear of your experience, Paul. I had thought of epoxy but was put off because of its reputation for degradation by UV. Your answer to that is clearly the 2 coats of varnish.
Another approach is to use Burgess Hydrosol Wood Sealer. For those who do not know it, this is a milky white water-based solution that can be used on even damp wood. Saturate deeply and the wood dries out rock hard and durable. It is UV stable. I used it on my dinghy iroko once I got fed up re-varnishing it and never had to worry again, year after year. It is quite remarkable. I occasionally wiped it with oil, but that did not really do anything. I used it on Santana’s toe rail too, but, unfortunately, this was too late for some of it – as Ty knows.
If I had older teak/iroko that was beyond the beautiful Teak Wonder approach, I would clean and bleach, dry it out and apply clear preservative from HomeBase etc. (which not only checks rot but retards blackening discolouration), then once that was dry I would saturate with Burgess Hydrosol Wood Sealer, and that should be that. By the way Burgess also make a ‘clear sealer’ which is a top coat in lieu of varnish – don’t confuse the two.
Good luck whichever way you go.
Tony
Hi Gary, I have a MG30, that is part way through a refit, but due to a change of circumstances I can no longer keep her. I am about to put her on ebay, but wondered if you knew of anyone that was looking for one at very reasonable money, ie make me an offer.
Thanks
Ian Harding
Hi Ian,
Not that I’m aware of. I know it took Tony ages to sell his, and even then he didn’t get as much as he had hoped !
If I hear of anything I’ll let you know, so fingers crossed you find a buyer soon.
Kind regards,
Gary