bo, The answer to your question is enough water to get her off the trailer. The M15 will float in 15 inches of water (theoretical and unloaded), but the essential question is how high does your trailer lift the boat. If you have a marked waterline measure how high it is off the road and that's how much water you need. If you don't have a marked waterline measure the height of the bottom of the keel and add 15 inches to that. You seem like an adventurous guy, launching from the beach and all, so why don't you go out at low tide and dig some holes for the trailer wheels to drop into. That way you can launch in a minimum of water. On a more serious note, a tongue extension might be in order. With one you can get the tow vehicle another 5 or 6 feet away from the boat and therefore get the boat in deeper water. I don't have one, but having seen the one that Connie made for his M15 trailer, I figure it's pretty much doable. Besides being able to access some ramps that would otherwise be unusable the extension helps you keep the tow vehicle and rear wheels out of the water. Salt water is a killer to metal parts like brakes and traction should be better also. Rick Langer M15 #337 Hudson River
Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2005 19:40:20 -0400 From: "bo Swartwout" <caboswart@hotmail.com> Subject: M_Boats: launching To: <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Message-ID: <BAY106-DAV9296F6EE29864163BD33FA3300@phx.gbl> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
After the long New England winter I got the itch today to launch my new to me 15. I trailered down to the beach, rigged and proceeded to launch across the beach only to find it wasn't deep enough. I have a Dilly tilt trailer and that didn't help. How much water is needed to float a 15 off the trailerIt was good rigging practice anyway. Thanks for any info.