February 2005 - montgomery_boats - mailman.xmission.com

North Channel Cruise
by htmills＠bright.net 02 Nov '06

02 Nov '06

I'm planning on a two week North Channel Cruise in mid June. I'll probably drive from Ohio to Tobermory, take the Chi-Cheemaun ferry over to South Baymouth (Manitoulin Island), and then drive to Little Current (Manitoulin Island) on Saturday June 5th. I might end up taking the ferry on the morning of the 6th depending on how late I hit the road. At the present time I'm thinking of making a general counter clockwise spin around the North Channel, launching at Spider Bay Marina in Little Current and going north and then west to the Bustard Islands and west and then crossing south to the west end of Manitoulin and returning east again. Of course, all plans are subject to the weather and whims of the person at the helm! Mid June will probably be a bit ahead of the crowd and still kinda nippy. There is some info on the area at: http://www.continuouswave.com/north-channel/ and here: http://www.continuouswave.com/sail-logs/ If anyone else is planning on a trip up there, perhaps we can meet up! Tod

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M-12 class association?
by htmills＠bright.net 11 Nov '05

11 Nov '05

I was browsing through a book I had bought thirty years ago and it lists some one-design class association secretaries. At that time, the M12 class association secretary was one Nancy Kilpatrick of Newport Beach, CA. Never knew such a thing existed. Tod

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Re: M_Boats: more new stuff on the photo site...
by BILLAMICASR＠aol.com 17 Jun '05

17 Jun '05

In a message dated 1/22/2005 12:38:23 AM Pacific Standard Time, bobo4u(a)qwest.net writes: Sorry to respond to list about this, but I don't know who codes the site. Hi Bob, Funtigo does it all. It's quite easy to use their site as they made it that way. If I had to do as you suggest... it wouldn't get done as I don't posses those skills. Now about funtigo... There is a possibility they can change something to assist those with other than an MS browser. However, I'm not the person to suggest whatever is needed as again, I dont posses those skills. Maybe you could write to Funtigo on the MSOG behalf, explain what their situation is and get a technical answer. That, after translation, we could all understand. As for me, I never heard of Foxfire or Safari before. I've always used Internet Explorer and don't know any better. You would be doing the group a favor if you can get an answer. Go to their main site at www.funtigo.com and at the lower left is a "contact us" link. If you want to get an idea of how they make it for their clients. You can sign up for a free trial funtigo membership. Thanks for any help, Bill

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RE: M_Boats: The angle of the dangle
by RandyG 28 Feb '05

28 Feb '05

William, I've got some pictures of our M15 at http://sailing.gravesfam.us . See the link on the left side of the web page to "M15 #407". The pictures are a collection of M15 photo's from over the years, but some show the fairlead mounted on the cabin top that is factory and used for the 110 working jib. Hope they are helpful! On another note- I wanted to say Thank You! To everyone who shared advise, tips, and information, on dealing with trailer rust and restoring an oxidized hull. Thanks! With everyone's input we now have "a plan". Well almost, we are still giving some thought how to best deal with the trailer rust. Again Thanks, Randy & Deanne Graves M15 #407 M17 #410 ________________________________ From: montgomery_boats-bounces+randyg=cite.nic.edu(a)mailman.xmission.com on behalf of William Emerson Sent: Mon 2/28/2005 1:26 PM To: montgomery_boats(a)mailman.xmission.com Subject: M_Boats: The angle of the dangle I'm not real happy with the way the jib sheet is set up on my boat - it is routed through a fairlead on the cabin top at about the shrouds (fore/aft) and about 6" outboard of the companionway cover. Is that correct? If not, what is? William M15 #135 Karen Michelle _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats

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The angle of the dangle
by William Emerson 28 Feb '05

28 Feb '05

I'm not real happy with the way the jib sheet is set up on my boat - it is routed through a fairlead on the cabin top at about the shrouds (fore/aft) and about 6" outboard of the companionway cover. Is that correct? If not, what is? William M15 #135 Karen Michelle

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Spinnaker for M15
by Norm Bundek 27 Feb '05

27 Feb '05

I finally opened a small bag which contained a spinnaker. I would be on the water today except for the heavy rains in the Los Angeles area. The spinnaker's luff is 13' and the width between the clews is 11'. For those M15'ers with spinnaker experience: Would you run the spinnaker sheets through the jib fairleads located on my cabin top just aft of the mast? Or, run the sheets back to cleats in the cockpit (double set of cleats are installed now)? I noticed a heavy cloth loop attached to the center of my spinnaker. Is this a place to attach a small line to take the wind out of the sail when taking down (pulling it in from the middle? Does anyone use a spinnaker sleeve? Norm M15#172

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Cabin roof structure
by Rick Langer 27 Feb '05

27 Feb '05

Can someone tell me if the M15 cabin roof is cored or solid fiberglass? I guess I'll find out when I drill the holes, but I just want to plan my approach before I drill. The area I'm concerned with is around the mast step. Thanks, Rick Langer

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RE: M_Boats: Rust
by Morris, Giles 25 Feb '05

25 Feb '05

Some while ago I rebuilt the trailer for my M-15 and was reasonably satisfied with the results. My description is in the archive, but I've appended it below. Giles Morris -------------------------------- Until I bought her, Umiaq had been used primarily in fresh water. This meant that the Trail Rite trailer, although fifteen years old, was in pretty good condition. Living near the Chesapeake Bay, I have every intention of making life hard on the trailer by dunking it in salt water as often as possible. So it was that, a few days after getting back from a trip to Florida with Umiaq, I was in my driveway with the idea of inspecting the trailer to make sure that it wasn't going to fall apart this coming summer. Aesthetically, the trailer could best have been described as functional (it isn't only dogs who look like their owners) but the overall condition was encouraging. The frame itself was excellent for the most part - probably because it has no enclosed box sections. The wheels were new, and the grease from the leaking seals ensured that they weren't going to corrode. The wooden parts were another matter: Although still in the right place the side guides and the V-shaped keel guide just behind the rear roller had seen better days, and the carpet on the side guides would have been an insult to a parrot cage. The bunks were ok, but the high-friction carpet on them was sometimes making life difficult at the ramp. It looked like the trailer would easily last a couple of seasons without doing anything to it, so I did the obvious thing. A few minutes later I was jacking up Umiaq's keel preparatory to pulling the trailer out from underneath her. Tools available were a hydraulic bottle jack and timbers. A landscaping timber formed blocks for the keel to rest on, and two by fours took care of the rest. This was to be a solo effort because my son is much too young to be scampering around under half a ton of boat and my wife is much too smart to get involved with this sort of thing. My mother was visiting, and is usually game for this sort of thing ("I'll distract it while you grab it and slip the muzzle on - watch out for the tail"), but even I have some shame About an hour's work found me wondering why the trailer was still stuck to the boat. I lost count of the number of times that I checked every place where the hull was even close to the trailer. Eventually I noticed that the mast was still firmly tied to the trailer at one end and the boat at the other. Bingo! A few minutes later, the trailer rolled out free, and Umiaq was sitting proudly on blocks. But not for long. Before I could even stop the trailer moving, there was a "creak". Uh, Oh! "Creak". Doesn't sound good. "CREAK". Oh, no! The temporary props were too far back on the hull, and one of them was moving slowly. Quandary: Do I go and hold the timbers, knowing that the worst that can happen is that I break the hull's fall, or do I keep out of the way. "Rumble, bump". Option B, by default. To make the best of it, I decided that I would not worry about the damage that I'd just done until I got the boat back on the trailer. And the good side was that when my new centerboard arrived it would be easier to fit it (see "Umiaq Has a New Centerboard"). The rest of the afternoon was spent in reducing the trailer to its component parts. Here's what I found (remember, this trailer is about fifteen years old and may not have seen salt water until this year): All of the wood (bunks, side pieces, keel guide) were significantly deteriorated. All of the fasteners holding the wood had corroded - some of them almost to nothing. Many bolts had their nuts corroded solid with them and a bolt cutter was extremely useful at this point. The wiring was in such poor condition that it was a miracle it worked. Two of the six plates at the tops of the bunk board supports were rusted paper thin. The lights should have fallen off long ago. Apart from that, things were in good functional condition, although the original paint was falling off in many places. The hubs were absolutely free of water inside and showed no wear at all, which may well be a result of the bearing buddies. The ensuing work lasted several weeks and involved two outside contractors. First I took the trailer to a welder and had all six of the bunk board supports replaced. I also had him remove the single (permanently attached) safety chain and put on two loops for new chains. I also had him add loops for the hold-down strap that had previously been kind of jammed into a convenient hole. In addition, I had him remove a skid that prevented me from fitting a tongue extension (I'll write about that when I find out whether it works). I made quite a few phone calls about a new surface finish. My initial plan was to get the trailer sandblasted and hot-dip galvanized, but two problems prevented this. The first was return on investment. The only galvanizer I could find to do it wanted nearly eight hundred dollars, and this seemed rather a lot. The other problem was that I had to arrange for it to be sandblasted just before galvanizing, and this turned out to be really hard. Most sandblasters around here seem to want to do only buildings or small metal parts. I phoned every one in the Yellow Pages. Some were helpful, some were insulting, but most were just uninterested. Now what? It turned out that I could rent a sandblasting machine and, although not exactly fun, could expect to do the whole thing in a day. But the machine was too big to carry in a car - I needed a truck to carry it. Well, call me chicken but I opted out. There was one company that would clean to bare metal and apply a powder coat finish for under five hundred dollars. They and their work looked good, and a few days later I was in their parking lot one misty, moisty morning removing the axle, springs, wheels, hubs etc. "It'll be done in ten days", they said (it wasn't, but I didn't really believe them anyway so no harm done). Meanwhile, I was in my basement making new wooden parts. I used preservative treated lumber and stainless steel nuts, bolts and fittings. This was an easy but long task that involved duplicating the shapes of the old wood and bolting them together. All of the lighting and accessories were new. I decided to change the bunk board surface to Ultra-High Molecular Weight (UHMW) plastic. Somebody in the Potter group has recorded frustration with trying to bend the stuff, so I tried a different approach - I bought it thick enough to countersink and screwed a flat plate of it to each board. This didn't cost too much more than carpeting at well under $40 for two six-foot bunks. At the same time I sent an order to Champion Trailers (www.championtrailers.com) for new springs, bushings, U-bolts etc. Everything that was available in stainless steel, I bought stainless steel. Other pieces were bought locally at Boat/US or West Marine. I was initially planning on using new hubs, but after looking at prices for new ones I decided to fit new bearings to the old ones. (The cups were so tight that it took a professional mechanic friend over an hour to replace them). Considering that an idler hub is basically a lump of metal with a hole in it, new hubs would probably have been a waste of money. Eventually, the trailer frame was ready (one day under three weeks) and I was fortunate enough to be able to assemble it for the road in the finisher's warehouse. He even supplied an assistant to help me. The assistant was a little stand-offish at first, but after about an hour he was sitting in my toolbox and playfully biting my feet. This assistant was a delightful Labrador/German shepherd cross puppy with one blue eye and one brown. Never having done it before I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to assemble the springs, axle and hubs. Just as well, really, since that was the only way the trailer was going home with me. Now what? The trailer, mostly reassembled, was sitting in front of the boat. Neither of them was going anywhere unless I did something about it. Actually, this part had been worrying me. One option I considered was to invite all my friends round for a boat-raising, but it looked as if it was going to be hard to get everybody together at the same time. So... It was back to me, my bottle jack and plenty of lumber. It turned out to be pretty easy, partly because the UHMW plastic on the bunk boards allowed the boat to slide and partly because I had put a new, and stronger, winch on the trailer. The whole job took about two hours including tea breaks. It's hard to describe the feeling of relief when Umiaq was once more sitting squarely on her trailer instead of lying sadly on her side. And what about damage from the fall? Thank you, Jerry Montgomery, for building such a strong boat. A few scratches, nothing more. Final touches: Fine tune the fit of the new bunk boards, fit the V-shaped keel guide behind the rear roller, fit the new side bunks. Put on new wiring, including a proper ground wire instead of trying to use the trailer frame and... done. Conclusions? It was worth it for two reasons: The trailer is now ready to perform its duties with minimal maintenance for quite some time, and I now know a lot more about the trailer, and any potential problems have been addressed. This wasn't an inexpensive exercise, without having bills in front of me I would estimate $125 for welding $450 for stripping and refinishing $200 for parts Plus a considerable number of hours of my time. On the positive side are a better-than-new trailer and a great sense of personal satisfaction. One other thing. While I was doing this I decided that it was time to make a tongue extension so that I could get the trailer further into the water on shallow-sloped ramps without immersing the car in automobile solvent. I've just about finished an eight-foot extension to the tongue based on the design that was on the back page of Sail magazine a few months ago. I'll let the group know how it woks out when I get the chance to try it. Giles Morris Arlington VA M-15 #264 "Umiaq"

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Trailrite repair
by bownez＠juno.com 25 Feb '05

25 Feb '05

Hi Craig and listers. On my M23 Trailrite, the metal at the bottom of some of the channels had rusty holes in them. I took a ball peen hammer and gave them a whack, which proved their sorry condition. The hammer punched right through, the metal was mush. I took the trailer to a welding shop that specialized in rebuilds. They cut out all the weak channel stock, cut off the old coupler, and welded in new stock and a new Atwood coupler. I when primed and painted the trailer with Rustoleum. I also replaced the wheel backing plates, brakes, and wheel cylinders (all available in assembled form), and ran all new brake lines. The new brakes work great, and the piece of mind going down the road is quite comforting. Two years ago I came upon an accident where an older 17 foot fiberglass runabout was being towed, and the trailer broke in half. The boat had launched itself off the trailer and was smashed up against a guard rail and what was left of the trailer was all over the road. Talk about a bad day.... Think Spring. Bones ___________________________________________________________________ Speed up your surfing with Juno SpeedBand. Now includes pop-up blocker! Only $14.95/month -visit http://www.juno.com/surf to sign up today!

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Re: M_Boats: How Best to Remove Rust
by bobjudy2＠comcast.net 25 Feb '05

25 Feb '05

Randy, Good luck on that one. I had a 1982 trailrite that I had sandblasted then repainted. It was impossible to clean the insides of the channel iron member between axles, so they rusted to the point where I did not trust the trailer on the freeway. I bought a new trailer. I launch almost exclusively in salt water. Bob M15 #208 > Friends, > > We have an older Trailrite trailer that is starting to show more rust than > paint. Does anyone have any tips, tricks, or product recommendations for > stopping and preventing rust on a boat trailer? > > On a previous trailer with a similar problem we sand blasted, primered, and > re-painted. But I was disappointed when rust began to reappear again after only > 2 - 3 years. > > Any help, advise, product recommendations, are appreciated! > > Thank You, > Randy Graves > M15 #407 > M17 #410 > > _______________________________________________ > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats

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