Hello Connie, You are a gifted writer. I love reading your descriptions and explanations. You make everything very clear and exciting. So glad to have had the opportunity to meet you in this forum. Many thanks, Jack M15 Sent from my iPad On Oct 17, 2013, at 11:41 AM, Conbert Benneck <chbenneck@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
On 16-Oct-13 5:26 PM, stevetrapp wrote:
Hi Tyler,
Bigger isn't better. Been there; done that.
Our Tripp-Lentsch 29 was a wonderful sea-worthy ship for us for 26 years.
We picked her up at the builder's yard in Vianen, Netherlands, and sailed her down the English Channel to Le Havre, France. Then we had to move to Munich, and took our boat along. Next we sailed across the Adriatic from Italy to Yugoslavia several times, exploring that wonderful cruising area.
Back in the States, we based our TL29 in Noank, CT and sailed from Boston to New York, and everywhere in between.
Bill Tripp had also designed some larger boats: the Bermuda 40 for Hinckley; the Northeast 38 for LeCompte in the Netherlands. As luck would have it, I spotted an ad from a German Yacht Club for their Northeast 38 during a business trip to Munich, contacted the Yacht Club and bought the boat. Bigger is better, isn't it?
We picked up the NE38 the following June in Hamburg; sailed down the Elbe River to Brunnsbuettel and the entrance to the Kiel Canal; traversed the Kiel Canal and then sailed the Danish Islands for 5 weeks to see what kind of problems I had bought.
Our intent was to sail it from Hamburg back to the USA the following year, after getting it in shape.
Back home in Connecticut, after our Danish cruise, we contemplated our navels and these were our conclusions:
- The bigger boat has a much smoother ride in rough seas
- It had lots more space down below, but we found we really didn't need it.
- On a bigger boat sheets, lines, sails, equipment are all larger, heavier; we weren't getting younger and the crew had left the house. If I dropped the main and the boom didn't land in the boom crutch, there was no way that Katrina, behind the steering wheel, could lift up that roller-reefing 18 foot long telephone pole and drop it into place. It was much too heavy.
- Our conclusion: we'd rather stay with our TL-29, we could sail that with advancing age far longer than we could the bigger NE38.
- We sold the NE38 and kept the TL 29.
Ever increasing costs for dock space and winter storage costs meant that we were spending about $50 a day to go sailing (1992 cost numbers), but the astronomical increase in the numbers of inconsiderate powerboat drivers on the water finally led us to say enough.
- The joy of sailing was no longer available ; peace and quiet was not to be found anywhere along the Connecticut coast.
- That is when we decided to seek another form of sailing that gave us the old sailing fun, but cost very little. That's how we discovered trailer sailing.
Initially we started with a Bolger designed MICRO, followed - because of mast stepping difficulties - by a ComPac 16 (a sailing disaster); which led to the Montgomery 15.
The M15 solved all our problems. We could now go where we had peace and quiet again. Where there were no stinkpots using sailboats as slalom poles. Cost for sailing went almost, but not quite to 0. Winter storage was next to the garage; I only had to pay for launch ramps - and many were free.
With a trailer-sailer you can be at the Chesapeake, Lake Champlain, Moosehead Lake in Maine, or on Lake Huron in just a few hours driving time. Try doing that with a big boat.
The glossy sailing magazines keep trying to tell you that if you haven't got at least a 35 footer, and preferably a 40 or 42 footer with roller furling sails; gazillions of electronic gadgets; and all the latest go-fast equipment, that cost a minimum of $250, you are a nobody.
Sorry, guys, been there; done that; and it's a bunch of hooey.
Connie ex M15 #400 LEPPO ex ComPac 16 ex MICRO ex NE38 RHE ex TL-29 FUN TOO plus several more.
We became firm believers in smaller is better, and would still be sailing our M15 if old age (and 2 hip joint replacements for Katrina) hadn't put a stop to our activities.
I found hardback and softback copies of Don Casey's books, including hardback and softback copies of The Complete Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance Manual at my local public library. Seems a possible alternative for a limited budget. Steve M-15 # 335
----- Original Message ----- From: <casioqv@usermail.com> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2013 12:36 PM Subject: M_Boats: Other Don Casey Books: Sensible Cruising
While we're talking about Don Casey Books (the Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance Manual), there's another of his books that I really liked:
Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach : A Philosophic and Practical Approach to Cruising
This book was a revelation to me to make sailing fun on a very limited grad student budget. I had been hanging out at yacht clubs and the sailnet forums where many sailors spend hundreds of thousands to rig their boats- and I was a bit embarrassed that I had such a small boat with simple 1970s style rigging (i.e. no lines to the cockpit). Some people even told me I shouldn't own a boat until I could finance a new large boat that would be "comfortable and safe." This book made me realize that the simpler I setup my boat, the less hassle and more fun it could be.
One example I really liked was their discussion on internal vs external halyards. Rather than discussing the relative merits, Casey says (if I remember correctly) "whichever system your boat came with- that's the one for you."
Tyler M15 "Defiant"
----- Original Message ----- From: "stevetrapp" <stevetrapp@q.com> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2013 10:59:50 PM Subject: Re: M_Boats: M_Boats :book Boat fixin'
Don't know if it is the same book as Amazon, don't know what is on Amazon, or Barness and Noble, because I prefer to shop at locally owned bookstores. Steve M-15 # 335
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