Hi Connie.
Your history is memorable. I enjoy your posts. I enjoyed your last
magazine article. I believe that was originally intended to be a chapter in a
book you planned. I think that the book would make some interesting
reading. What are the odds of your doing that? I'd like a signed copy.
sal
In a message dated 6/12/2014 4:12:58 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time,
chbenneck(a)gmail.com writes:
On 12-Jun-14 2:02 AM, Patricia Weart wrote:
Hi Pat,
A brief resume, so that you have a feel for where I come from and what
my experience level is.
I have sailed since I was about 22. Prior to that I had Klepper
foldboats and paddled on the Hudson in the New York City area / the
upper part of the Hudson in the Adirondacks / and on Lake George.
My sailing interests started with a High School friend whose ex Navy
Captain father had a sloop, and later a 50 foot schooner. His son and I
were crew.
After WWII I helped a friend convert a Liberty ship lifeboat to a
lovely little cutter that we sailed on Long Island Sound. We gutted the
lifeboat, and then built decks / cabin / masts / booms / gaffs. I
overhauled the old hand-crank UNIVERSAL 4 cylinder engine.
Later living in Europe for 17 years, I had a German racing class
sailboat and when we were told to move to Paris, I had a Norwegian
fishing boat with a tiny cabin built; took deli very in Rotterdam, and
then went from Rotterdam to Paris via inland waterways.
My wife got tired of having nothing to do on a power boat and insisted
we get another sailboat, which we did. We sailed it from the builder's
yard to the Ijsselmeer, to become familiar with the new ship and a
month later sailed it down the English Channel to Le Havre and then back
up the Seine River to Paris.
At that point, MURPHY entered the picture, when the Company called me
and asked me to open a new office in Munich Germany. Naturally we moved
the new sailboat there too.
Then on our vacation we would truck it to Italy and sail across the
Adriatic to Yugoslavia, exploring the coast, and the ancient cities. We
also sailed in the Med.
Another MURPHY event had us planning to sail our 29 foot Tripp-Lentsch
from Europe back to the USA, but that trip wasn't made because I got a
new job, and we moved back to the USA.
Years later, getting tired of the ever increasing number of powerboats
along the New England coast, we sold our big boat and went
trailerable, but before that happened we had one last fling at
big-boat-itis. I found an ad for the big brother of our old T-L 29, a
Northeast 38, in a German yachting publication and bought a fully
equipped 38 footer in Hamburg, Germany, with the intent of sailing it
back to the State the following year, after a shake-down cruise in
Denmark to see what problems I had bought.
Having a trailerable sailboat became a new and very fascinating world
for us. We now could head for Chesapeake Bay / the Florida Keys / Lake
Huron / Lake Champlain / Moosehead Lake in ME in a few hours of driving
from where we lived in Connecticut.
The boat we finally had as our third trailer-sailor was a Montgomery 15.
With this background, now let us discuss a bit of sailing philosophy.
How do you intend to use the M15?
Do you plan to live on board occasionally? If so, then things
like adequate storage space / a comfortable berth / and a good
functioning boat is required.
See that your M15 has a bow pulpit. It give you a hand-hold while
on the foredeck, and adds to safety.
If you only plan to day-sail, the items mentioned above are not
quite as critical, But... every boat needs space and easy access to
things like your sails
mooring lines / fenders / anchor/anchor rode/cleaning materials/
cockpit cushions/PFDs/Bimini awning for sheltering the cockpit from the
sun or rain. On
a 15-footer, the cockpit becomes an important addition to your
living space aboard, so it has to be a usable area day and night / rain
or shine.
If you plan to go cruising for a weekend or longer, and will live
on board, then storage / no support post for a mast / space for clothing
/ food / stove / bedding
becomes of great importance. At one point I had bought a ComPac
16, and after the first sail, we sold it as fast as we could. Why?
Well, the berths were under
the cockpit seats (no connubial bliss possible) There were no sail
lockers, so you had to put everything into milk crates and stuff the
milk crates on the berths.
OK, now you want to use the berth, now what? Well, you put the
milk crates in the cockpit. Then it rains all night..... You get the
picture. It was a terrible set-up.
On top of that it sailed like a dog. Don't ask it to go to
windward. The best you could do was about 45 degrees from what a
"normal" "proper" sailboat could do.
That was when we bought ourM15 sight-unseen in Panama City, FL,
and sailed happily ever after.
The M15 provides excellent storage space for everything you need to run
the boat (and you'd be surprised how long that list will rapidly
become. Remember, you need space for some spare outboard motor fuel /
you add fishing gear / and the list keeps growing; a marine radio;
binoculars; a GPS; oilskins ; and so it goes. So, good usable
accessible storage is a prime consideration in a "good" boat.
The sailing characteristics have to be good as well. You are interested
in sailing, not putting a bed sheet on a barge and hoping it will take
you where you want to go. Sailing requires a responsive vessel, and the
M15 does the job beautifully. It was highly responsive to the
helmsman's input, was fast, and loved to sail hard on the wind.
I finally swallowed the anchor and sold our M15 - with tears in my eyes
- when I was about 87 years old.
Mast stepping on an M15 is not hard to do, except for the very first
time you do it, when you haven't a clue how it is done, or what to
expect. After the first time, it just gets easier and easier.
As for your concern about trailer wheel bearings: I changed my own
bearings, but I would suggest that you take the boat /trailer to a
trailer / welding shop, before you get on the road, where this a
routine maintenance job for them. I would also have them install
"BEARING BUDDIES", which are caps on the bearings that maintain a
positive grease pressure in the bearing housing so that water can't get
into the bearing when the bearings are under water when the boat is
launched or retrieved. They just cost a few dollars but are well worth
the price for keeping your bearings clean and free of water.
We towed our M15 with a VW Jetta station wagon / and with a VW-GTI, and
it tows effortlessly at 70 MPH on an Interstate.
A highly desirable item to have is a "trailer-tongue extension". As the
name implies, it gives you an additional 6 to 8 feet so that when you
are launching on a shallow launch ramp you don't have to put the back
wheels of the car in the water.
Another important safety item: you need 4 chocks with long lanyards.
You place those where you want the car wheels to stop on the ramp,
and/or to control where the trailer has to stop. They also prevent the
car from inadvertently sliding down the ramp into the water (have seen
that happen in Clearwater, FL and it ain't pretty when the car finally
stops moving and the water is at the base of the windshield and the
engine is now full of salt water)
Pat, just fire away with your questions, between us all we can present
you with a whole pallet of choices and our reasons for your final
evaluation and decisions.
Connie
ex M15 #400 LEPPO
ComPac 16
Bolger MICRO
Northeast 38 (2 years - too big with no crew around anymore)
Tripp-Lentsch 29 FUN TOO (26 years; a superb practical ship)
Norwegian powerboat FUN
Sailing experience:
Europe: Sweden / Denmark / Holland / Belgium / Germany / France/ Italy
/ Yugoslavia
USA: East Coast - New England to Delaware Bay: Rochester to Oswego ;
then the NY State Barge Canal to the Hudson River, and down the Hudson
to Staten Island (delivery trip of our daughter's boy friend's T-L29)
> Hi all! I am a newbie to sailing and this group but an oldie on the water
> (mostly canoes, kayak). I have been interested in sailing for a long time
> and went to sailing school last year. Think I need a refresher course :)
>
> I am looking for a Montgomery 15, somewhat late model (I want the boat to
> outlast me). Condition matters most but I don't really want an older
boat. I
> seek a well cared for boat that has only been sailed in fresh water.
Safety
> is very important to me, such as the bearings on the trailer being
> maintained regularly when the trailer is used.
>
> I am petite and don't have much upper body strength. Singlehanded
stepping
> the mast easily and singlehanded sailing the boat is a priority.
>
> My budget is modest because I haven't really sailed much, so don't want
to
> invest a lot in a boat because I am a beginner. However, I can finally
push
> aside some of the busyness of life in favor of the water.
>
> Does anyone out there have a Montgomery 15 for sale or can give me a
lead I
> can follow to find one? I live in upstate NY near Lake Ontario. I will
> travel for the right boat.
>
> BTW, any opinions on the West Wight Potter 15? Bob Eeg scared me with
some
> info he sent about their turtling because of little ballast. So many
people
> own them and love them. The Potter is one of the few boats that I'm also
> interested in. However, Montgomery seems to trump Potter. Thoughts?
>
> Thanks much.
> Pat
>
>
>
>
