From South Haven to Saugatuck
We’re the Morris family, and we’ve been taking guests sailing on Lake Michigan since 2010.
The family
How it started
“None of this would have happened if I had known how to camp,” says Tim Morris. So instead of camping, our family went sailing, starting with a 21-foot wooden boat. Most of our favorite family memories are about sailing.
In 2010, when Tim was a custom cabinet maker, his daughter talked him into opening a charter business. We bought the Margaret Ann, a six-passenger Gulfstar sloop built in Florida, and named her for Tim’s aunt, “the coolest lady who ever walked the earth.” As Tim puts it, “She just treated everybody like they were the most important person in the world.” When Tim and his daughter each wrote down the boat names they liked, each had written down just one: Margaret Ann.
South Haven, 2010–2023
Our South Haven sails
Our two-hour sails ran down the Black River, out between the piers and into Lake Michigan. Guests brought their own wine and beer, and either helped with the sails or simply relaxed. We sailed out of South Haven until 2023, and the Margaret Ann is retired now.
Saugatuck, since 2019
Then came Serenity
In 2019, after years of dreaming and searching, we found our schooner, the tall ship we had always wanted to run. She had spent many years sailing passengers out of historic Yorktown, Virginia, and Saugatuck has been her home port since.
Today a small crew of licensed captains and deckhands sails her on day sails, sunset sails and private charters, with some familiar faces from our South Haven days.
The 2020 magazine feature, reprinted on the Sailing Saugatuck Captain’s Blog, has more of the family story: A Little Family History.
The Morris family
