Hi Sam, Welcome to the group and to sailing in the PNW. I coordinated the annual June San Juan Islands cruise for a span of about 10 years. During the 2013 cruise I announced my retirement as trip leader, hoping some one else would pick up the ball, but no one has stepped forward. I still sail the islands at least once a year, usually twice, with a small group of friends. There are other groups that also sail the islands annually and if you can establish an inside connection, you may be able to join one of these. I live in the inland northwest and sail many of the same lakes you listed, my favorites being Priest and Pend Oreille. Keep in touch and maybe we can get some sailing in together. There are a few other Montgomery sailors in the area as well, mostly based out of the Bitter End Marina on Pend Oreille Lake. I also have a little knowledge of Venga Viento. I've forgotten the gentlemans name who sailed her, but I ran across him on Pend Oreille Lake back when I was first getting started. Beautiful boat. As I recall lhe had several articles in the old original Montgomery Newsletter - which has long been out of print. Somewhere, I believe on the MSOG.org website, there are scanned copies of the old newsletter. With any luck you will be able to read how-to articles that feature your "new" boat! Good luck and hope to sail with you some day. Larry Yake M17 CornDog On Sat, Mar 18, 2017 at 11:32 AM, Sam <s.hunter@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,
After ~1.5 years of scanning Craigslist on a weekly basis, reading a lot of reviews, forums, and watching plenty of youtube videos, I finally made the decision and bought a Montgomery 15. I mostly learned to sail on Rhodes 19s with Courageous Sailing in Boston Harbor, so the idea of having a trailerable sailboat which points well and sails more like a keelboat than a dinghy pretty much sold me (the M-15 isn't hard on the eyes either)!
I will be sailing lakes in the NW mostly (Coeur d'Alane, Dworshak, Pend Oreille) but was really intrigued by rumors of a Montgomery-owners San Juan Islands get together. Is this event still being held?
I bought the boat from an older gentleman in Oregon who had only owned it for a year and had purchased it from someone in the PNW who had made a number of upgrades/modifications/additions for cruising (and also appears to have kept it in immaculate condition). The boat's name is "Venga Viento", hull number #272, built in 1984. If anyone happens to know any history about the boat I would be interested to learn more. Here are a few photos: https://goo.gl/photos/SCiZXrHKf9p3na35A (including a couple of photos of a little boat I built a few years ago, which I'll probably have to sell now...).
Thanks, and happy sailing,
Sam