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@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