Three Yachtsmen to Discuss Sailing History

Famed yacht designer Charley Morgan and Sarasota attorney and sailor Charles Ball will reflect on the past several decades of “Sailing on Sarasota Bay: Past, Present and Future,” at New College of Florida.

The panel discussion will take place Saturday, Sept. 15, at 1 p.m. in the Music Room, College Hall, which is located on College Drive on the New College campus near the bayfront. Admission is free and the public is welcome.

Boat builder Tom Mayers, owner of Lands End Marina on Longboat Key and a New College graduate, will introduce Morgan and Ball and will round out the panel. Morgan is founder of Morgan Yacht. He designed and helmed the 1970 America’s Cup contender, “Heritage,” the last wooden 12-meter racing yacht to be launched in the United States.

Morgan grew up in Tampa and developed a passion for sailing at the age of 10. He started a sailmaking firm in St. Petersburg in 1952, and won international recognition for his yacht design of the ocean-racing yawl, “Paper Tiger,” which won the 1961 Southern Ocean Racing Conference championship.

Ball is a Sarasota attorney who comes from a line of sailors. He was reared on the Sarasota Bay and sailed the trimaran he built himself. His great grandfather, Charles A. Johnson, was a 19th century sea captain on trading barks, and Ball has a collection of his ancestor’s charts, logs and journals. The captain’s son, Charles, served in the U.S. Navy in Cuba and was a civil engineer on Egmont Key, and settled in Sarasota; Charles’ daughter married Steve Ball.New College biology Professor Al Beulig also will discuss his course, “History and Development of Maritime Technology.