And if your outboard fails, all of a sudden, you will love those oars. I've always had a dinghy (with outboard) to get to shore. Never in my life have I left without oars. It's good seamanship in my opinion. Also, I'm sure proper oars can push your Monty pretty efficiently. It's much better than no propulsion. Layered safety options never hurts. On Wed, Mar 3, 2021, 7:28 AM brad kurlancheek <bkurlancheek@gmail.com> wrote:
Some people might wonder, why would you even want to row a Montgomery 15 sailboat.
Here's my reasons why, just for the sake of discussion...
1) Granted, a Montomery 15 will sail with just the lightest of winds. But sometimes, you don't even have that. You have nothing. Flat calm glass mirror nothing. We've all been there. And yet, you want to go somewhere. What to do? Easy. Crank up the motor. Okay, but....
2) Some of us don't want to have a motor on our boat. They're loud. You need to have gasoline in them or near them. They push the transom down into the water, adding weight and drag. Motoring is not sailing. Anyone can motor. They're automated propulsion requiring very little challenge or thought. Sometimes, they're kind of like cheating. On the other hand, I do agree, sometimes there's nothing better than fossil fuel powered automation and power to get you from A to B! For sure.
3) I need exercise when living on a boat for four, five, six days, sometimes more. Sailing gives me some exercise, but not as much as I seem to need, and yoga - well I don't have a clue how to do it, yet. Rowing a boat for 30 to 60 minutes gives me that aerobic time I seem to need in order to maintain some bare semblance of sanity. Else I get cranky and moody, etc. I don't happily and cheerily wave to the rude motorboaters. Instead I yell naughty 4 ltr words to their so called skippers that they can't hear as they boom by, their obnoxious wake knocking my soon-to-be-dinner off its little burner stand. But if beforehand, I've rowed for a good while, instead I calmly say, "Oh what a pretty superglam showboat you have. I realize it takes zero brains to operate, and I know it cost you 80 G's, but it's so boss looking! No, it's no problem at all that you're doing 40 mph so close to my tiny little sailboat. It's a blast almost getting capsized by your wake. Have fun!"
4) Oars and rowing are a great Plan B, for when the motor goes T-up. It just seems like good seamanship to have them on board when in a small sailboat. It's not like we're trying to row a 20 or 30 something foot boat here. The Monty's only 15'! It should therefore be rowable, imho....w/oars and oarlocks and sockets practically standard equipment.
Cheers,
- Brad