Hi Folks, As John has pointed out I have a bow mounted anchor with a sizable anchor which uses a deck mounted hawse pipe & cap on my M17. The hawse pipe & sealable cap came with the boat when I got it, along with an 8 pound Danforth which was hung on the bow pulpit. As the Danforth is not very effective up here in the PNW, I replaced it with a Rocna 6 (13.2 lb) on the bow of my M17 -> http://www.msogphotosite.com/Scripts/Boats/boatsdetail.php?id=105. My stainless bow roller (4.5lbs) is mounted on a 1x4" teak sprit that protrudes 10 inches beyond the bow (4.5 lbs) ensuring good clearance when deploying & retrieving the anchor in rough weather. My rode consists of 40ft of 1/4 chain (30lbs) & 200ft of 3/8 3 strand nylon (7lbs).I have a 5 gallon bucket secured at the bow in the v berth that the rode drops into through the hawse pipe. So the total weight up front for my anchor setup is *59 lbs*, which is essentially the same as the weight of my 6hp Merc outboard mounted at the stern not counting the 5 gallon external gas tank & 2 2.5 gallon jerry cans in the wet locker. Additionally as a cruiser I always have another 200 lbs or so of gear & equipment centrally stowed including food, water, stove, tools, repair materials, inflatable kayak, 12V AGM battery, Radio & Nav electronics, spare anchor, emergency tiller, gin pole, mast yoke, sculling oar etc. All this to say in my M17 which is heavily kitted out for wilderness cruising I find the setup works really well in all sorts of weather and I have not experienced any hobby horse effects and the anchor & rode performs excellently. A couple of other comments; I sail single handed & anchor as opposed to tie up on nearly all of my overnight trips. I chose to upsize to 13 lb Rocna since here in PNW the anchoring choices can be tight or holding can vary and the 13 lb size provides excellent holding performance for the M17. The bow location allows me to efficiently deploy & store a fair amount of rode, i.e. 240ft or so which is an absolute necessity in the PNW, using a space in the boat that is usually not well utilized. I have a "dual trigger" release rigged for my anchor that has a separate safety & release that allows me to deploy the anchor at the bow without ever leaving the cockpit. Which is a dream after a long hard day of sailing & being tired. Yes I have to go to the bow in the mornings to retrieve the anchor, but by then I am fresh, I have had breakfast & a cup of coffee before venturing forward onto the bow (I have web jack stays that I clip to). Because my boat has a balsa core deck, when I first got the boat I removed the hawse and the caulking that was keeping the balsa cross section dry. I then dremeled out the balsa back about 1/4", then filled & finished the edge flush with some thickened epoxy & small strips of glass matt. I then recaulked & remounted the hawse into the deck. I think all this works fine on a well equipped M17, that said, I have never even stepped foot onto an M15 but given its size & weight, I would probably go for tossing an anchor from the cockpit. Cheers, Keith *Keith R. Martin* *Vancouver/Burnaby B.C.* *Serenity M17, #353* *http://www.msogphotosite.com/Scripts/Boats/boatsdetail.php?id=105 <http://www.msogphotosite.com/Scripts/Boats/boatsdetail.php?id=105>* On Sat, 23 Oct 2021 at 10:26, John Schinnerer via montgomery_boats < montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> wrote:
Hi Jon,
Since you have the same cabin layup as my #38 M17 (previous thread) with the half-round stiffeners, you presumably have half-round stiffeners under the foredeck also. Yes? Mine does. No balsa anywhere on #38 and probably not on #44 either. Jerry posted in that prior thread that he did use half-round stiffeners in early boats, before the balsa salesman came around.
I for one am quite happy with that, as my cabin & foredeck are plenty stiff & solid, and no core rot to worry about from penetrations that lose their bedding seal.
My M17 came with a cowl vent installed in the foredeck also. No idea if that was OEM or put in later. Something like this:
https://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?path=-1|6880|2290139|2290141&id=1816600
Apparently the first owner of my boat had it down in Baja for a time, so maybe the cowl vent was an addition for a bit more ventilation in the warm season there.
To give a contrary to having anchor & chain weight at the bow be a problem - for those with larger/heavier outboards on the stern, it's a counter-balance. Or if you like to sit aft in the cockpit rather than forward.
Less of an issue on a 17 than a 15 of course.
Keith M can chime in as he has his anchor bow-roller mounted on his M17 as I recall, yes Keith? And a heftier anchor than average IIRC.
cheers, John
On 10/23/21 9:28 AM, Jon Barber wrote:
My M 17 Ol'44 came with a hawse pipe ( aka stovepipe) and other hardware on the foredeck to stow a danforth anchor. The navigation light is mounted on the foredeck, also, leaving precious little room to stand. As I rarely anchor, I dont need an anchor close at hand, and having fewer trip hazards is always desirable. I removed all anchoring hardware.
My solution for anchoring is to stow anchor and rode under the cockpit sole and rig a messenger line to the bow. The rode is passed thru a carabiner that can be hauled forward. This approach adds complexity to anchoring but the benefit is that you never leave the cockpit.
I do have a rather large hole in my foredeck. Jerry commented here that the early boats did not have balsa coring. Should I be able to see the coring in the deck where it was cut? Does anyone know when the use of balsa began?
Thanks, Jon Barber Monty17 Ol'44
-- John Schinnerer - M.A., Whole Systems Design -------------------------------------------- - Eco-Living - Whole Systems Design Services People - Place - Learning - Integration john@eco-living.net - 510.982.1334 http://eco-living.net http://sociocracyconsulting.com