FROM GLORY TO OPPOSITION

On Morning Glory II, Ted Heath was the only British prime minister to win an international sports trophy. One wonders how he reacted when she was renamed Opposition

- NIGEL SHARP

It must have been with his tongue firmly in his cheek that Tony Morgan renamed his new boat Opposition after buying her from Edward Heath in 1973. Before becoming Prime Minister three years earlier, Heath had served as Leader of the Opposition for five years and would briefly do so again after losing the 1974 General Election. “I think it must have been part of their agreement, that the buyer had to rename the boat, but I don’t think Heath was best pleased with the choice,” said Jamie Matheson, the current owner. “But I think it is a brilliant name.”

Heath’s ocean racing career had got off to a spectacular start in 1969 when he had won the Sydney Hobart race in a production S&S 34, the first of his five Morning Clouds. The following year he decided to up his game in the world of ocean racing by commissioning a new boat. For the design it made sense to go to Sparkman & Stephens again, and it was Olin Stephens who then recommended that Lallows of Cowes should build it. Heath also consulted his experienced crew with regard to various aspects of the new boat and it is thought that the blister deck – designed to be lighter and stronger, and to provide improved working spaces – was their idea. Furthermore, a cross-linked winch system was the brainchild of Owen Parker, Heath’s long-term sailing master, and was specially developed by Barient Winches. Not long after her launch in April 1971, the new