Hi Rick, Tom Howe is a friend of mine. I owned his 1986 M17 for six years prior to selling it to him. He in turn sold his older model M17. He is the fourth owner of the boat now named Osprey II. It was originally set up by Jerry Montgomery and Tom Van Atta for their racing campaigns. It was complete with spinnaker, adjustable backstay, and working and mylar sails. The center mount traveler provides optimum mainsail control and is right at hand. It keeps the skipper and crew in the middle of the cockpit and only occasionally seems in the way. With regard to trailering, I was able to step the mast by myself and launch it by myself, although it is much more fun to have someone along to share the great sailing. The boat will readily sail with four full size adults and can party-barge with six. I was able to wheel the trailer and boat around my relatively flat driveway by myself, by hand. I am of average height and weight. All up, the boat, trailer and gear weighed approximately 2,200 to 2,300 lbs. Trailering and launching was fairly easy. My wife and I sailed lakes all over the Midwest traveling as far as 500 miles one way. We sold it because we moved to a house that did not have space to keep the boat on the property and we had grown tired of the routine of loading up all of the maintenance tools and supplies to haul out to the dry storage area at a lake an hour away just to do 15-20 minutes of work. Having a boat in one's yard is a luxury that I didn't fully realize until after the fact. Now we are partners with another couple on a 1985 S2 6.9 (22') at the same lake and it is in a slip. He's the on-site property manager, so he has all the necessary tools and supplies right there. As much as I like the convenience of a slip and the performance and relative roominess the S2, I enjoyed the ability to hook up in my yard and go anywhere with the M17 much better. An experienced crew can rig and launch an M17 in 35-45 minutes. You're definitely on the right track with Montgomery boats. Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rick Langer" <farreach@optonline.net> To: <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 10:38 AM Subject: M_Boats: Re: montgomery_boats Digest, Vol 14, Issue 10
Tom, It was great to see your Ariel and reminisce about what a great boat I had. My Ariel "Nimue' " (the Lady of the Lake who enticed Merlin) is hull #222. She is fast, stable and comfortable. I miss having her and I ached a little going to those websites. I need a boat. This is my second season without her, but I don't need that yacht club routine, Spring/Autumn hauling, packing the truck with tools and everything to work on the boat, traveling an hour just to make sure sell didn't sink (20 times a season) and having to pay many $$$$ to do it. A guy at my club use to say, "Sailing is like standing in a cold shower ripping up twenty dollar bills.".
How was the transition of going from the Ariel to the Montgomery? What do you wish the Montgomery had that the Ariel had? I noticed that Osprey II appeared to be in a slip for the season. Do you feel that trailering her is difficult? Also, is the traveler, mounted is the center of the cockpit, a problem?
Thanks, Rick Langer Hudson River
p.s. This is off the subject, but what is that device mounted to the dock in the third photo of Osprey II?
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Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 19:13:46 -0500 From: "Thomas Howe" <Thomas@ThomasHoweOnline.com> Subject: RE: M_Boats: FW: Re: Introduction To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Message-ID: <ELENIICJJMGPIKPCLJEKCEHDCEAA.Thomas@ThomasHoweOnline.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Rick, great to have you aboard. I own both an Ariel and a Montgomery 17, and between them It is hard to pick a better boat. I would say that the ease of use, the solid feel, the portability of the Montgomery puts it ahead by a nose. Both Lyle Hess and Carl Alberg were masters, and we are blessed to be enjoying the fruits of their brainpower. To view my Ariel, #131, Sea Smoke, you can go to the Ariel website run by Bill Phelon
http://www.pearsonariel.org/discussion/showthread.php?s=51d48dab91600b034a08
7042af12806d&threadid=650 in the bulletin boards, or you can go to http://www.geocities.com/sailapearson/ and see her. For my M-17 Osprey II, check out the Boat Pics at MSOG.org http://msog.org/ . Feel free to contact me off list if you would like more info. Fair winds, Thomas Howe
---Thomas Howe ---Your Real Estate Consultant For Life! ---785-550-1169 ---Mailto:Thomas@TEHowe.com ---www.ThomasHoweOnline.com ---Reece & Nichols, ACRES Realtors O --------(\ ---------- ~ (\ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ (\ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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