Mark, Where did you learn to do the double braided eye splices? I have gone online to Sampson and downloaded their instructions but I still end up with having wasted 27" of line. For that matter, if anyone has found a good source of instructions please let me know. Thanks to all and have a happy 4th. Joe ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Escovedo" <m17flushdeck_amy@yahoo.com> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 1:57 PM Subject: Re: M_Boats: Where's my halyard?
When I replaced the running rig on "AMY" I tossed the wire/rope halyards into my "old boat stuff" box and switched to double braid halyards. I spliced eyes onto the ends of the halyards and attached them to heavier "Cast" Wichard halyard shackles with a birds head loop, easier to replace than if the eyes were spliced through the shackle. As Amy is 31 years young, and the shackles were original, I thought she'd appreciate the upgrade :) I know I feel better losing those skinny flat shackles.
Fair Winds Mark E M17F/D #103 AMY
----- Original Message ---- From: Danelle Landis <anniesark9@yahoo.com> To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Thursday, July 3, 2008 9:11:02 AM Subject: M_Boats: Where's my halyard?
I took my mom and stepdad sailing for the first time the other evening. My mom is very experienced at sailing, and her husband somewhat, and it turns out that I was really grateful for that crew that day! The sail started with me whining, because we were nearly becalmed. Sails flopping - *boring*. I'd wanted to delight them with the frisky, speedy sailing that my M17 "Ceto" can do. It was strange weather that evening though - warm but with an odd fog bank out in the open water that was shifting and blowing around. Where we were, it was sunny. As we were just talking, wishing for wind, all of a sudden came a perfect 12 or 15 k breeze, and we were happily whooshing along on a beam reach. The breeze was all over the place though, and we chased it around, as it veered wildly. Then we were becalmed again. Then we were zooming on a broad reach for awhile. Then wing-and-wing. It was just weird. Then we turned around to get back to the harbor, and it was the same thing - switching, unstable breezes, but we were able to stay mostly close hauled, pointing up well. It was fun and kept us on our toes. We got close to the harbor, and I was just about to start up the outboard and get the sails dropped when we felt this odd, sudden push of mist-filled wind. Then, BAM, we were hit *hard* by a wall of wind about 30 k - working jib up, main full up, both in tight because we'd been close hauled. My oh-so-helpful mom called out "We're at 40 degrees!" Okay, yes we were laughing and screeching like kids on a rollercoaster, but her husband George, at about 200 pounds, was on the lee side, and his rear was probably 3 inches from the water. He climbed back to the windward side, as I rounded up to lessen the heel a little, we eased the sheets and then we got pushed down to 40 degrees again (thanks Mom, for calling it out! ha ha) I gave in and popped the main, letting it swing out, as the wind was intensifying, and we were closer to shore than I liked. We swung around and went into irons, which was a welcome respite. We sat that way, for a few minutes, way too much wind blasting my poor old sails, while I had George take the helm and I got that outboard (Suzuki 4 hp) down and started faster than I ever have. (It's a little hard for me to get that bracket up and down) I powered us into the wind and my mom and George got the sails down. I've done a lot of thinking since, working out how I would have handled that if I'd been alone. Unfortunately, when my mom lowered the jib, there was NO halyard. At some point, the wimpy little U-shaped shackle had just let go, and I guess the wind pressure had been keeping the sail up. When we were getting the main up to start this sail, I'd been dismayed to see that the same style shackle on the main halyard was all bent and weakened. I'd had to bend it around to get it to work. We hadn't noticed anything wrong with the jib shackle. Now we have to learn how to get the mast down to replace it. Are those thin U-shaped shackles the original hardware for the boat? I have a hard time believing that they were - how would they have held up for 25 years, then break in less than ten outings with us? I'm sure the previous owners encountered odd powerful gusts here and there too. Danelle M17 #378 Ketchikan, AK http://web.mac.com/anniesark9/Site/Sailing_Ceto.html
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