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A "Happy heart" has found new owners

Oleksandr

Oleksandr

New Member
Greetings to all Morgan owners and members of this forum. My wife Natalya and I became the new owners of Morgan 384 "Happy Heart". We are citizens of Ukraine. We lived in the city of Kherson, Ukraine and were owners of the Johnson 26 "Matilda" sailing yacht. We planned to retire and go on a trip on our yacht. But we didn't have time. The war has begun... Our house and our yacht are destroyed. So we came to the USA and bought another sailing yacht. Now this will be our new home. Only now our house will not stand in one place, but will float wherever we want. We really hope that "Happy Heart" will not disappoint us. And we will try to love him and take care of him.
I'm sorry if it's hard to understand me, my English is very bad. Google helps me :)
We wish everyone good and peaceful heaven. Seven feet under the keel.
Oleksandr
 
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Welcome Oleksandr. Your message appeared in Ukrainian, but Google translate helped me read it. I am glad your dream was not completely destroyed by the war. And I sincerely hope that the United States will continue to support the brave people of Ukraine, who are defending their right to live in peace in their independent country, until Ukraine's rights are secure. Let us know as you begin your travels. (And I may have broken the rules again by bringing geopolitics into the forum. )
 
Hello Terence. Thanks for good words.
Let's not talk about politics, just about yachting.
Our journey cannot begin yet. There are many faults in the yacht that need to be eliminated before sailing anywhere. One of the unpleasant problems is the fecal tank. When you use a latrine, the contents of the fecal tank partially fall into the hold. Perhaps a similar problem occurs on other Morgans in this series. Does anyone know where I can find plumbing and electrical plans for Morgan 382-384 boats?
 
Welcome, and I sincerely hope your new home is a happy home for you. This forum is a great resource, and just about anything that can break or be fixed people here have done it.

It is a common problem for the holding tank (fecal tank) to leak. (it is one of the few real problems the Morgan has) It is very difficult to fix, so most owners install a new and larger tank in a better location. The top of the tank would need to be fiberglassed to the sides of the bilge (hold). Because it is so small, power tools don't fit to do the grinding and sanding required.
One location is under the port settee (seat/bench), which is closer to the head (latrine) so easy to do. Some Morgan's do not have a water tank in the bow, and so that place is used sometimes, but I think you have a water tank there. And some people rebuild the head with new cabinets and place a tank there.
If you click on "Search" and search for "holding tank" you will find lots of information from other users who have done something similar.

The owners manual is saved in the "Morgan 38 Background, History, Reference" Section which I linked below. The electrical drawings and plumbing drawings are towards the back of the manual.

Owners Manual for M384 and M383

Here's an owner's manual I found for a 384 which also says its for the 382. I've scanned and made it into a PDF. Enjoy!
www.morgan38.org

May I ask where in the United States you are located (it's very big) and where you would like to sail? Probably there are members near you that might help you learn your new yacht.

-Warren
 
Oleksandr - I, too, hope Happy Heart brings you much happiness!

We weren’t really having problems with our Holding Tank, but my wife is very sensitive to smells and even a well functioning holding tank can smell occasionally.

There were other reasons too, but we ripped out all the plumbing and installed a composting head. Wife says zero odor, and it’s quite simple to maintain. Holding Tank was flushed out and capped off, and we will never use it again. We are very happy with the decision.

Welcome to the forum!
 
Welcome Oleksandr!
I'm sure you will find Happy Heart will be a great boat and home for you. As has been said, this forum is a wonderful resource for our boats. If you can't find the information you need, just reach out to us with a message. I know searching in a different language can be difficult.
This forum and its vast knowledge and people was a major factor in our buying our 383, "Sonata". These are truly incredible boats!
Fair winds,
Mitchell
 
If you mean the waste is going into the bilge, you may also have broken or cracked pipes from the toilet to the holding tank. On my vessel, a 382, they run from the toilet through an area under the port settee (where one of my water tanks is) then down under the sink, and into the tank. To access them, you would first have to remove the settee top (plywood) off. All doable, but a big job.
On this site, on the tab titled "background" you will fined original manuals, which should have electrical information, but I do not recall them containing any plumbing schematic. On my vessel, the main DC circuits came to a junction box hidden in the bottom of the chart table, then run up to the DC panel. On 382s like mine, electrical wiring was not the best. 383s and 384s may have been done better.
 
Oleksandr

Many of the Morgan 382,3,4s were plagued with cracked tabbing on the bilge floor/ holding tank ceiling. This was caused by improper blocking under the keel when the boats were hauled. Mine was included in this malady. If you are getting effluent in the bilge that appears to come from nowhere. check the fiberglass tabbing on the sides of the bilge. If the tank is full, and you keep pumping the head, you will hear hissing in the bilge and nasty liquid appearing. That is broken tabbing.

Jim
 
Hi Warren. Thank you very much for your kind words and for the tip about the user manual.
We are currently located in Sarasota, Florida. We are planning to move to Miami in April. And in May we may go north along the east coast of the United States, and perhaps to Bermuda and further to Europe. This will depend on whether our US visa is extended.
 
mpearson said:
Oleksandr - I, too, hope Happy Heart brings you much happiness!

We weren’t really having problems with our Holding Tank, but my wife is very sensitive to smells and even a well functioning holding tank can smell occasionally.

There were other reasons too, but we ripped out all the plumbing and installed a composting head. Wife says zero odor, and it’s quite simple to maintain. Holding Tank was flushed out and capped off, and we will never use it again. We are very happy with the decision.

Welcome to the forum!
Click to expand...
Hi Mark. Thank you very much for the idea with the composting head.
 
terry_thatcher said:
If you mean the waste is going into the bilge, you may also have broken or cracked pipes from the toilet to the holding tank. On my vessel, a 382, they run from the toilet through an area under the port settee (where one of my water tanks is) then down under the sink, and into the tank. To access them, you would first have to remove the settee top (plywood) off. All doable, but a big job.
On this site, on the tab titled "background" you will fined original manuals, which should have electrical information, but I do not recall them containing any plumbing schematic. On my vessel, the main DC circuits came to a junction box hidden in the bottom of the chart table, then run up to the DC panel. On 382s like mine, electrical wiring was not the best. 383s and 384s may have been done better.
Click to expand...
No. These are not pipes. It's in the hold. The leak is coming from inside the wall in the hold, just above the fecal tank.
There are also a lot of problems with electrical. I'm slowly figuring it out. Electrical diagrams of how it was (or how it should be) will certainly help me. I am an electrician by profession. I'm sure I can fix everything.
 
jimcleary said:
Oleksandr

Many of the Morgan 382,3,4s were plagued with cracked tabbing on the bilge floor/ holding tank ceiling. This was caused by improper blocking under the keel when the boats were hauled. Mine was included in this malady. If you are getting effluent in the bilge that appears to come from nowhere. check the fiberglass tabbing on the sides of the bilge. If the tank is full, and you keep pumping the head, you will hear hissing in the bilge and nasty liquid appearing. That is broken tabbing.

Jim
Click to expand...
Hi Jim. Yes, that's all true. Moreover, it does not matter whether the drain is open into the tank or outside the boat.
I understood the problem. Thanks everyone for your help!
:)
 
Сan someone tell me how to pump the contents of a fecal tank overboard when the boat is far from the shore? Now I see that one thin tube comes out of the fecal tank (apparently a connection with the atmosphere) and three thick pipes. One of them goes to the deck on the starboard side, obviously, it is intended for pumping out the contents of the tank when the yacht is in the marina. The second pipe goes to the pump on the toilet, everything is clear with it too. And the third pipe runs under the water heater to the left side, then probably runs along the side behind the galley (I can’t see more precisely), then it comes out in the cockpit in the locker on the left side and goes down into the pipe, which is located in the stern. Apparently, this is a collector into which various drains converge. It’s clear how water flowing down the deck gets into it, but how can the contents of a fecal tank get there? For this you need a pump, and I do not find any signs of either a manual or an electric pump along this path. Is this how the boat manufacturer intended it, or did one of the previous owners remove this pump? Then where was it located before?
 
Oleksandr,
As far as I know the builder, Morgan, never provided a means to pump the tank out at sea. Only from the "waste" deck fitting at a pumpout facility
. I'm sure someone here has added a pump and plumbing to empty at sea. But in most areas you may just pump directly overboard from the toilet at sea by switching the valve below the counter in the head. As long as you're 3 miles Offshore.

Someone here may correct me if I'm in error...
Mitchell
 
From the factory, there was a vent hose (the small one) and two larger pipes, one to the deck, and the other to the toilet. There was no way to pump overboard. Many owners have added that, but there is no standard way and they would all be different.

The third pipe you describe sounds like the bilge pump, for pumping water out of the bilge (what you have called the hold). Is it a flexible hose? It would go under the water heater, then turn and go under the icebox, to the rear of the cockpit there is a pump on the seat, on the left side. From there to the large drain. (we call the large drain the torpedo tube, because it resembles a tube that might shoot a torpedo)
 
I added a 1 1/2" seacock (mounted on a plywood pad) in the narrow locker just forward of the chart table. It was then easy to install a Y-valve and Whale Gusher Urchin hand pump in the same locker. The Y valve diverts the waste stream either to the deck discharge point or the Urchin pump and seacock for overboard discharge. I contemplated an electric pump, but did not want to be reliant on an electrical device. For future questions, you might want to start a new thread for each subject. Otherwise, this thread will get long and multi-topic. Good luck on your upgrades.
 
Many thanks to everyone who responded. I'm starting to understand a little what and how it works in this boat. Everything is very different from modern European yahts. I hope to eventually understand all of Morgan's engineering systems. In the meantime, I’m starting to lean towards a composting toilet. It looks like this is the most expensive, but the simplest and most reliable option.
 
I'm assuming that you are supposed to pump the black water tank out before you go on an offshore trip, and once you are offshore, you switch the toilet to pump overboard, so there shouldn't be much in the tank. No reason to need to pump it out while offshore.
 
In most of the world, pump outs are not available. Even in the US they are often broken. So there is a need to be able to pump out offshore.
 
DGA said:
I'm assuming that you are supposed to pump the black water tank out before you go on an offshore trip, and once you are offshore, you switch the toilet to pump overboard, so there shouldn't be much in the tank. No reason to need to pump it out while offshore.
Click to expand...
Yes, of course you can do this. But this means that when you are at sea, your drain seam is constantly open. Isn’t it better, even in the ocean, to use a holding tank and pump liquid out of it into the water? :)
I don't think this is an important question, it's more of a habit.
 
Hi all.
Can someone tell me what kind of resin was used to make the Morgan's body - epoxy or polyester?
 
Not 100% sure on this, but I would say it is polyester resin. Note that epoxy will bond to it well, and if you are doing a crack repair etc, you are better off using epoxy, it will bond to the substrate better than polyester.
 
In case it is the reason for asking, it is NOT the same resin that causes other boats from the same era to be plagued by blisters. I believe it is a polyester.
 
OK. I understand. The reason for the question is the need to repair some places. And as I understand it, for a good repair you need to use the same type of resin from which the body was originally made. Thank you. When I do this, I'll tell you about the results :)
 
Polyester resin. No one built boats of vinylester or epoxy back then--except maybe custom. But use West Systems epoxy for repairs. Better product and works very well. I speak from experience with repairs.
 
Second the recommendation for West System. Use 40 grit or a grinding wheel to remove the the shiny "blush" from the resin you are bonding to. The bond will be as strong or stronger than original.
 
Oleksandr said:
Hello Terence. Thanks for good words.
Let's not talk about politics, just about yachting.
Our journey cannot begin yet. There are many faults in the yacht that need to be eliminated before sailing anywhere. One of the unpleasant problems is the fecal tank. When you use a latrine, the contents of the fecal tank partially fall into the hold. Perhaps a similar problem occurs on other Morgans in this series. Does anyone know where I can find plumbing and electrical plans for Morgan 382-384 boats?
Click to expand...
We had that problem as well when we bought Delia. We chose to repair the holding tank but it was very expensive. I wish I had found this forum before I decided to do that. Good luck with Happy Heart and welcome to Florida!
 
Hi Coy.
Now I’m not doing anything on the boat, I’m just getting ready for work, because the yacht remains in Sarasota, and my wife and I returned to Ukraine - our visa has expired. Now we are waiting for a new visa. As soon as we have a new visa we will return.
"Happy Heart" is my third own yacht. My two previous yachts were also old and had many problem areas. That's why I'm used to repairing yachts on my own. As far as I was able to understand the situation, repairing the fecal tank will not require a lot of money from me - $200 for materials for repair is quite enough. The fact is that this is a very inconvenient and difficult to reach place. Because of this, it may turn out that the repair turns out to be of poor quality and after a while the problem will appear again. But I'll try to do it. If that doesn't work out, I'll buy a composting toilet.
 
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