Dave, just looking at the first page of your site. Very professional appearing. Well designed, a rare thing. Larry in Sacramento, Hull M-15 #189 -----Original Message----- From: montgomery_boats-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:montgomery_boats-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of W David Scobie Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 8:36 PM To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats Subject: Re: M_Boats: More newbie questions...Cruising storage solutions? SWEET PEA, my M17, had the motor mount moved from port to starboard side. her last owner told me that the owner before him was told by her first owner (everyone follow that) the mount was moved to balance the boat: motor weight v. that filling the starboard deep locker (and in SWEET PEA's case the galley). IMO this is overkill. fill the boat with items for a cruise and add the crew the entire idea of balance goes out the window as the weight of the motor v. anchor is less than where all the other gear is stowed. OK, maybe if you are a racer the balance idea is 'worth it'. IMO you have 'rail meat' to balance the boat. now, sitting 'mostly empty' SWEET PEA stays on her lines. thing is, so are other M17s with the motor on the port side. i use rigid totes for most storage. these slide down the starboard 1/4-berth and under the cockpit floor. very small totes are used in the galley space and under the 1/4 berth. thus far i've used only soft duffel type bags for storage under the forward part of the v-berth. for longer cruises i put 2 5-gallon rigid coleman water jugs under the cockpit floor. i carry two anchors - a danforth and a 'claw' knock-offs. both have their own 20' of chain and 200' of rode. i believe both are 9# anchors. in puget sound the length of rode is important ... my trip at the beginning of this week there were 12' tides. both anchors reside in the port side deep locker. with all my stuff stored for a cruise SWEET PEA sits level. if she is leaning for any reason but wind it is because of the moving human 'rail meat'. ;-) dave scobie M17 #375 - SWEET PEA visit SWEET PEA's www-site: http://www.m17-375.webs.com --- On Thu, 7/30/09, Bill Wickett <billwick@gmail.com> wrote: Just 2 adults using an M17. Lots of different totes and open baskets out there to slide under the cockpit or down the quarter berth. (wow, that starboard one goes waaay back!). We looked at some perforated plastic baskets tonight that would push on down either quarter berth. For the starboard side would have to link them together to retrieve the back 2 easily. These same also work under the cockpit as well. We thought that having lids might be a hassle removing them in the relatively confined space of the seating area. We used dry bags on our previous open boat. Often were diving deep into them to come up with the desired item, or emptying the bag completely. What have you found works well for you? Rigid totes or flexible bags? With the an outboard motor mounted on port side, and the deep cockpit locker there as well, do you find you are weighted more to port side? We have a knock off claw with 10 feet of chain. I feel that an anchor should be readily available at all times, so the deep port locker in a bucket is a logical place, except for the weight distribution issue. I believe the previous owner kept it in a bag below the cockpit, on starboard side. Only accessible by going below to get it out. Where do you store your primary anchor and rode? Thanks for any insights on these questions. Bill Wickett M17 #622...still not named!! _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet! _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!