I own one of the first balboa 20's- I think it was # 26. It survived a bunch of trips to Catalina Isl. i'd guess it was maybe not quite as fast as a 17, mostly because of a less-than-perfect rig and the big hole in the bottom of thbe hull where the keel recessed. I never hd a bit of trouble with it (mostly made it myself; I was working for Arthur at the time) but that big slab of cast iron hanging from a pin always scared me. Ventures and Catilinas shared thbe same type of keel and now and then one goes "bombs away" and goes to the bottom of the sea. Wouldn't want that to happen half way to the island. I didn't have kids then, but had a good time with a GF or two. Lyle Hess and I did the tooling on the 20 in exchange for a boat for each of us. I sold mine to start my business, but Lyle kept his for man y years. When I made the first 17 we had a race and I kicked his butt! I'll have to admit that he was using sails that were several years old. All in all, a very good boat for the time. This might be partly my ego speaking, but the 17 is a much more "together" boat. We eliminated the 2 flaws in the 20; the rig and the silly swing keel. Several times, in races, I came across B-20's and never had a problem with them, but then I always had a well-tuned boat with near-perfect sails so it's hard to compare. Could have been a lot different with one that was welll-tuned and sailed by someone who was really serious. jerry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gary M Hyde" <gmhyde1@mac.com> To: "Montgomery Sailboats >" <For and about Montgomery Sailboats<montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 5:29 PM Subject: Re: M_Boats: Balboa 20
I owned an Ensenada 20 that had the same hull as the Balboa 20. It was a nice camper, but it didn't point nearly as well as an M17, IMHO. Gary Hyde.
Sent from my iPhone :-)
On Mar 23, 2009, at 4:02 PM, Andrei Caldararu <andreic@math.wisc.edu> wrote:
Hello all,
does anyone here have first hand experience with the Balboa 20? How would she compare to the M-17? Faster, slower, better or worse sailing, harder to maintain, etc.? All opinipons will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrei.
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