March 2004 - montgomery_boats - mailman.xmission.com

Re: M_Boats: walker bay 8'
by Wcpritchett＠aol.com 24 Mar '04

24 Mar '04

I don't know about the M-8 dink but my M-10 doesn't tow well. I have to put weight in the stern to keep it from broaching downwind. Unfortunately it's the worst towing dink I've ever used. Don't get me wrong, I like the M-10 or wouldn't have kept it 29 yrs...but towing is not it's specialty. I actually took the Sportyak cruising and left the M-10 at home because it didn't tow well and wouldn't fit on the mother ships deck. It killed me to leave it behind but that's the story. Bill P.

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Re: M_Boats: Mellow sailing
by IDCLLC＠aol.com 23 Mar '04

23 Mar '04

Sounds like a better deal all the way around. Thanks for the info, Bob :) Steve Tyree, P-15 #2098, "Amy Ann" In a message dated 3/23/2004 9:18:34 AM Central Standard Time, Bobeeg(a)earthlink.net writes: Steve, we use a loose footed mainsail on the boat. Better sail shape (airfoil) and it is easier to 'let loose' if you need to. Also simpler to remove and store below. Bob Eeg (949) 489-8227

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Re: M_Boats: Mellow sailing
by BILLAMICASR＠aol.com 23 Mar '04

23 Mar '04

Hi Don, I've used auto pilots (larger boats) when reefing and prefer it over most any other method with exception of a crew. I can say from experience with the Potter 15, it was nearly unsafe to attempt to reef when the winds picked up. It was always better to reef at the dock for fear of getting knocked down and turtled. I did put on a Davis Tiller Tamer which helped a great deal but with the P-15, it was all to easy to lean a little and being "moveable ballast", change the heading, creating myself a problem. Have you installed a tiller tamer on Sweet Dream? It's a quick and innexpensive modification that may be easier to deal with than electric autopilot. A couple weeks ago, I asked Bob Eeg to send me a couple of pics of M-15's (I'll be ordering a new one soon) and one of the pics is of your boat, before being shipped to you. She's georgeous. I'm using her picture as wallpaper on my computer.

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Re: M_Boats: Mellow sailing
by IDCLLC＠aol.com 23 Mar '04

23 Mar '04

The safest, most reliable way I've found to reef or change sails is to heave to first. That means backing the jib, letting the main run free, and putting the tiller down hard to leeward. You do indeed need a tiller tamer of some sort. I use a heavy duty bungy stretched across the stern cleats and a jam cleat forward on the underside of the tiller. Works great. Amy Ann will heave to nicely under main and jib, main alone, jib alone, or all sails down! I think this is due in part to her high bow and exaggerated shear. I was out in our P-15 Sunday under similar conditions. At times I was way overcanvased with working jib and reefed main in an effort to tag along with 20-30' racing yachts (silly me). I found it took more skill than I had to keep the Potter moving swiftly in the force 6, choppy conditions. Lesson learned: It's your average speed, not your top speed, that counts. I believe the Monty 15 would be easier to handle and make speed consistently under these conditions. Comments, anyone? I've got another question, too: Which is preferrable on the M-15, a loose footed main or one that is connected to the boom via bolt rope? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Steve Tyree, P-15 #2098 "Amy Ann" In a message dated 3/22/2004 11:20:29 PM Central Standard Time, BILLAMICASR(a)aol.com writes: Hi Don, I've used auto pilots (larger boats) when reefing and prefer it over most any other method with exception of a crew. I can say from experience with the Potter 15, it was nearly unsafe to attempt to reef when the winds picked up. It was always better to reef at the dock for fear of getting knocked down and turtled. I did put on a Davis Tiller Tamer which helped a great deal but with the P-15, it was all to easy to lean a little and being "moveable ballast", change the heading, creating myself a problem. Have you installed a tiller tamer on Sweet Dream? It's a quick and innexpensive modification that may be easier to deal with than electric autopilot.

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Re: M_Boats: Mellow sailing
by LUDLOWD2＠aol.com 23 Mar '04

23 Mar '04

Well springtime has hit LA (lower Alabama). After a day of doing income tax (yes i put it off) the weather was just too fine. A cold front was moving in, no cold weather just wind. I dropped Sweet Dream in the water and motored out. It took three tries to get the main up with a steady 15 out of the NE, and gusts up to 20. Lost the main halyard twice. Finally sailing, So thats what an M-15 feels like at hull speed. WeeHaa! (My rebel yell) I crossed the ship channel (about 2.5 miles in just over 30 minutes. The waves were building in the middle bay and I needed to take a reef. I pointed her into the wind and managed to get the main reefed but couldnt get to the boom end long enough to tighten the topping lift for more twist. Headed back in on the starboard tack with a 15 degree heel. The waves would tip her over to 25 degrees at times. Gusts up to 25 now, screaming in the rigging. She wants to head up bad. I really needed a second reef but Elliott-Pattison didn't provide one as stock. (a trip to the local sailmaker is on my agenda). Had to dump the main several times when the heel went over 30 degrees. Thought about dropping the main and just sailing with the working jib but I needed to point high to make the channel. I sailed right into the river hoping for a lull to let me drop the sails. finally found one, the surrounding power boats couldn't make out what the chinese fire drill was about, I had to keep running back to the tiller as the wind rounded from different points. An autopilot is on my wish list right after the 150 Genny. I've got a lot of confidence now in the M-15's ability to really handle a blow but an extra hand at the tiller and some extra meat on the rail would have helped. Spring is here for the fortunate M-boaters in the south and can't be far away for the rest. Fair winds all. Tomorrow's another day.

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Re: M_Boats: Connie's Canals
by chbenneck＠juno.com 23 Mar '04

23 Mar '04

Hi Scott, No, never was on the Canal du Midi. That one is in the south of France; I think............. I'll have to get my old canal books out and recreate the voyage for you. Your thought of sailing the Flicka to Europe is fine, the only problem is TIME! You'll need the first summer just to get the boat moved into position: East Coast - Europe, before you can begin the real adventure, inside Europe. With our SABB diesel - man I loved that machine: absolute total reliability - you undo your mooring lines in a lock, push off the wall, step into the cockpit; press the starter button and pflumpf - pflumpf, it would fire.......... A variable pitch prop is nirvana. You haven't a clue what you are missing until you use one. With the Norwegian fishing boat, hanging out in the Maas river (Flemish name - don't you dare call it the Meuse - that's the French name and one half the Belgians hate: the Flemish: hate the French part of Belgium) waiting for a lock to open, you control your position by going from flat pitch to a tad ahead, or a tad reverse depending on which way the wind or the current was pushing you. No throttle at all, - you are at idle - just vary your position by changing prop pitch. Having a diesel on the Flicka solves all your major refueling problems. You may - as I did - experience a "slight" problem when you pull up to a refueling barge who takes care of the "big boys". He hasn't got a nozzle small enough to fit your (my) fill opening. His nozzle is about a 3 inch pipe as I recall, with a 90 degree shut off valve. When I needed 10 liters of fuel, he first cleaned his nozzle by dumping about 20 liters back into his tank. Then in fear and awe of such a petite bateau, he handed me the nozzle, while supporting the hose, and I had to do the rest. I put a funnel into my tank filler, and then v-e-r-r-y gently cracked his valve open so that I could control the flow. When my tank was full, I close everything back up and asked how much I owed him. Now he had problems. He was selling fuel by the ton, and here I had bought 10 liters............. He took a piece of chalk and then started calculating from the 1000 liter price back to a 10 liter price. Finally he gave up in frustration and said, give me Ffr 3.- ! I did and that was that! When we left Rotterdam, we went through Dutch waterways until we got to Maasbracht in Belgium (the Flemish part). Then it was up the Maas through Liege, to Dinant in France. That is where we got into the French canal system all the way back to Paris. A fabulous trip. After three years of operating a motorboat on the Seine, my wife was tired of having nothing to do while I puttered down the Seine and up the Oise rivers. The problem was that the Seine was the Paris cesspool, and in August when the flow rate is way down, the Seine may look very pretty from a Paris bridge; but up close and personal - it stinks! That is what lead us to buy our Tripp-Lentsch. The idea was to keep it at Le Havre - the only open port where you can enter or leave at any hour of the day or night. All the rest have locks to keep water in the harbors, and you have about a 2 hour window to enter or leave. Lock gates are opened say 1:30 before high water, and closed again 30 minutes after high water. (21 foot tides!) So if you want to get into that port, you may be stuck in a fore port until such time as the lock gates open again........... Oh, and Scott, don't make the mistake I almost made at Calais. We pulled in and my wife though we should go into a back basin where there were no boats. Somehow it didn't strike me right so I tied up alongside another boat in the harbor to sort it out. A few hours later .............. that whole basin was mud: no water at all! Again 21 foot tides! More anon. Connie

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p.s., walker bay
by Honshells 23 Mar '04

23 Mar '04

I've thought it would be fun to have a W.B. 10' to play with, to see if modifications could improve the performance and serviceability . . . I notice that Walker now offers a version of the 8' or 10' (or both?) with an inflatable ring for stability, to basically turn the boat into a rigid inflatable . . . Personally, I was thinking more along the lines of stringers to stiffen the hull, and some ballast (easily moveable, of course, since the "point" of the W.B. is transportability) . . . ----- Original Message ----- From: "Honshells" <chonshell(a)ia4u.net> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats(a)mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, March 22, 2004 8:25 PM Subject: walker bay 8' We kept our Flicka on a can for a couple seasons, and used a W.B. 8' to get to her . . . Nice little rowboat, but the oarlocks would pop out too easily, and the boat flexes a bit with a couple people in it, which is a little nerve-wracking to those who don't want to get wet . . . One of my Flicka partners preferred to use his Mad River canoe to get to the sailboat . . . We still have the W.B., but I think the Flicka's going in a slip this Spring, and don't know what we'll do with the dink . . . Walker Bay makes a 10' version now, right? I think the 10-footer would've been preferable for us, but the 8-footer's price was right . . . Per Gordon, I'd rather have the Monty 8' . . . ----- Original Message ----- From: <IDCLLC(a)aol.com> To: <montgomery_boats(a)mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, March 22, 2004 5:02 PM Subject: Sportyak A Walker Bay Eight was our first sailboat. Like most 8' dinghys, it could row 1-3 tolerably well, and tracked reasonably well, but it was so short going over 3 mph was lots of work! Sailing singlehanded wasn't real comfortable, but it could be fun in for short periods. The daggerboard was high aspect and thus stalled at low speeds. With plenty of wind, it would make 5 mph on a reach, and I never dumped her. She was a very cute little boat, but limited because of her size. She weighed 70 lbs and was awkward to carry any distance for one person. A couple of her clever features were a tiny plastic wheel in the skeg at the transom, allowing her to be rolled wheel barrow style on smooth surfaces, and a hollow skeg that made a good bilge, keeping one's butt dry. A sponge mopped her out easily. She made an excellent water toy. The kid's favorie games were "king of the boat" and "capsize"! Steve Tyree, P-15 In a message dated 3/22/2004 12:40:52 PM Central Standard Time, gordonallgrove(a)mindspring.com writes: Scott, Before you resort to/invest in a Walker Bay Dinghy, you might want to be on the lookout for a Monty 8. The used ones often sell for a very reasonable price (like ours did), sail kit and all. Gordon

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Re: M_Boats: Sportyak
by IDCLLC＠aol.com 23 Mar '04

23 Mar '04

A Walker Bay Eight was our first sailboat. Like most 8' dinghys, it could row 1-3 tolerably well, and tracked reasonably well, but it was so short going over 3 mph was lots of work! Sailing singlehanded wasn't real comfortable, but it could be fun in for short periods. The daggerboard was high aspect and thus stalled at low speeds. With plenty of wind, it would make 5 mph on a reach, and I never dumped her. She was a very cute little boat, but limited because of her size. She weighed 70 lbs and was awkward to carry any distance for one person. A couple of her clever features were a tiny plastic wheel in the skeg at the transom, allowing her to be rolled wheel barrow style on smooth surfaces, and a hollow skeg that made a good bilge, keeping one's butt dry. A sponge mopped her out easily. She made an excellent water toy. The kid's favorie games were "king of the boat" and "capsize"! Steve Tyree, P-15 In a message dated 3/22/2004 12:40:52 PM Central Standard Time, gordonallgrove(a)mindspring.com writes: Scott, Before you resort to/invest in a Walker Bay Dinghy, you might want to be on the lookout for a Monty 8. The used ones often sell for a very reasonable price (like ours did), sail kit and all. Gordon

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Re: M_Boats: Walker Bay 8
by IDCLLC＠aol.com 22 Mar '04

22 Mar '04

One more bit: A 2.5 hp outboard was dramatic overkill for it. A trolling motor was perfect, assuming you've figured out a way to strap down the battery. Steve Tyree, P-15

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Re: M_Boats: Cooking aboard
by IDCLLC＠aol.com 22 Mar '04

22 Mar '04

I've heard of cooking stew in this manner using a Thermos. Get all the ingrediants to a rolling boil, pop them into the thermos, then wait 12 hours. The only problem I could see with this strategy was cleaning the thermos back out when you're done. Steve Tyree, P-15

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