The article on the Home Page, ‘Kind of magic’ from Classic Boat magazine, gives us a very comprehensive idea of Frank Morgan-Giles love and expertise in the design and construction of small boats. The drawing here shows the design for the Yachting World Magazine in 1949, described as a 15' 6" Centre-board Sloop.
Early records show that sailing dinghies came in to fashion in the late 1880’s and were being built in Shaldon and Teignmouth from those early days. Abraham Pengelly was at the forefront of Dinghy design and one of the best boat builders of the day. Frank learnt his trade from Pengelly and by the early 1900’s was designing and building his own boats. In 1902 Frank set up his own business designing small cruising and racing craft.
This section concentrates on the One-design boats that were designed and frequently built by Morgan Giles. It concentrates on the smaller boats that were designed for the numerous Yacht clubs around the UK and also abroad. The larger One-designs such as the Salcombe A, B and C class yachts are included in the ‘Vessels’ section under ‘Sail’.
A favourite of Franks was the West of England Conference Class, later becoming the National then the International 14ft Dinghy Class and in those early days Francis concentrated mainly on dinghy design with great success. In 1909 he joined partnership with Harry May with offices in London and a boat building yard in Hammersmith. Within a couple of years there was a surge in One-designs around the UK and further afield including The USA and Australia amongst others. Frank was at the forefront of these designs.
From the inception of the Morgan Giles yard in 1920 the Morgan Giles job book shows well over 250 of the National, International and One-design dinghies were constructed in the yard, the last in 1956. Frank not only designed and built these fine boats but also sailed and competed in his boats with a great deal of success for many years.
The links to the One Design boats at the top of this page are just some of the builds and design that Frank created, others include Lagos Sailing Club, Shaldon Sailing Club, Cambridge University Cruising Club, Norfolk Broads, Seabird class for the Bombay Yacht Club, Blue Nile Yacht Club in Khartoum and there are no doubt numerous other clubs that used the Morgan Giles design. It is hoped to add more of these in time.
