Briefly, Lyle thinks that the skeg helps the boat steer a little more easily; I think a little larger rudder will do the same thing better (less drag). Jerry jerrymontgomery.org ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rick Langer" <farreach@optonline.net> To: <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, October 11, 2004 7:08 AM Subject: M_Boats: M-15 Skeg Jerry, Thanks for clarifying the M15 design story. I'm curious about the issue of a skeg. Would you briefly tell us the reasons why Lyle thought a skeg would be of help on the M15 hull and why you decided not to use one? Thanks, Rick Langer M15 #337 Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 16:14:06 -0700
From: "jerry" <jerry@jerrymontgomery.org> Subject: Re: M_Boats: M-15 To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Message-ID: <001901c4ad8c$82ca4fe0$87b64941@jerrym> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
I think you must be down the line a little, Bill.
The concept for the 17 was mine; I approached Lyle to design it for me.
The concept for the 15 was also mine, and I thought that during the ensuing 8 years I had learned enough to do it myself. By that time, Lyle considered me to be somewhat of a protégé because I had spent a great deal of time studying design, mostly under his wing.
Actually, Lyle approved of the 15 very much, and once said that it was the best looking boat I built. In the design stage, he looked over the drawings several times, suggesting once that I give it a little fuller sections forward (which I did), and another time suggested that I include a skeg, aft, which I did not do. We discussed his thinking and my thinking at length. He did approve of the boat and was probably as excited about the boat as I was.
I'm quite proud of the 15 but at the same time consider the 17 to be my best boat; mostly because of the masthead rig, which because fo the cost factor was not used in the 15. Look at the old Balboa 20, which was a Hess design and had a 7/8 rig. The rig is probably the biggest reason that the M-17 is a little faster boat in most conditions because of flexibility.
Jerry jerrymontgomery.org
_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats