TheEvolution of Famous for building yachts that emphasize solid performance alongside understated elegance, Morris Yachts celebrates its 35th anniversary. BY JOHN SNYDER
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OM MORRIS is a quiet man. A visionary entrepreneur, he—like the boats he builds—is understated, confident, strong, and purposeful. For the last 35 years he has been building boats that have become classics and that have set the bar for custom and semi-custom coastal and offshore sailing yachts. Morris was born in Philadelphia in 1940, but his family has had strong ties to Maine and Mount Desert Island since 1886. His great-grandfather had a cottage in Northeast Harbor not far from the Asticou Inn. As a boy Tom spent summers rowing and sailing, and was never far from the water. He sailed the family’s A-Class sloop, a Manchester 17 built by George Lawley & Sons that
Cuyler Morris at the helm of an M42 off Bass Harbor Light. Photograph by John Snyder.