Daniel- I'm here to save you! I've rigged several 15's for chutes, and we even offered it as an option. Pull the last bolt from the aft end of the aft toe rails, and grind or cut it to increase the angle to about 30 degrees. On each side mount a Harken 92 cheek block on the new cut in the rail. These are for the sheets. The sheets go forward from there to a cleat of some kind forward on the coamings; this is a good place for a regular jamb cleat so that you can sheet from either side. Mount a block or fairlead about in the middle of the deck for the foreguy and route the line back to the cockpit but don't rout it yet because you'll want to rout the foreguy and the halyard back together, side by side. The foreguy is the line that keeps the pole from skying, which it will surely do if you don't restrain it. The halyard block should go on the forward side of the mast just above the hounds, and the halyard n eeds to go down the mast to a deck block at the base of the mast, then routed back to the cockpit, The same Harken 92's will work good for routing the lines around corners on their way to the cam cleats at the aft edge of the cabin top. The 15 doesn't need much of a topping lift, and 1/4" bungee, attached about 6' up the mast will do. Attach a ring for the pole 3' up the mast, and if you make the bungee just long enough to pull it down to the ring comfortably it'll probably be about the right length. You can park the halyard, foreguy, and topping lift on the ring when not in use (also, the ring is a great place to park the main and jib halyard when trailering). If you make the pole of tubing larger than one inch you can get away w/o bridles an d simply put an eye strap in the center of the pole, top and bottom, for the topping lift and foreguy. You can attach the trip lines to one or both of these eyes. I've forgotten what the J is for the 15, but 5'7" rings a bell, anmd if you live in an area where you have lots of wind, make the pole that length. If you live in an area where you have lots of drifters, you'll want a 200% chute and will need to make the pole about 8 or 10 " longer than that. There's lots of info out there on how to operate a spinnaker, BUT: 1. The first time, do it in light air. Drop the jib and secure it to eliminate the complication. Take the chute down before you really need to! Start out by attaching the turtle (the bag that the chute somes in) to the bow pulpit, then progress to launching it from the shrouds. Retrieve the chute under the boom and directly into the cabin, and sort the sheets and halyard out later, after you get the boat moving and the pole is put away. 2. Any similar-sized chute will do! I still have the chute that I got 25 years ago from Skip Elliot for almost nothing because he made it for a local 470 sailor who didn/t like it. It looked great to me, and worked well. One night at the Long Beach show we used it to cover an old, ugly card table that had resin stains all over it. John Rogers, one of my old sailing buddies from Tucson, wandered by, flashed a flask of rotgut to me, and we crawled under the table and finished it off. Everyone should have a spinnaker! So if you have sailmakers in your area, they might have a chute for a totally different boat that might work fine. Good luck. jerry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Daniel Rich" <danielgrich@gmail.com> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, July 04, 2011 10:22 AM Subject: Re: M_Boats: Drifter
Can't wait to try this when I have light winds. But I don't have light winds where I sail!
Still no takers on the spinnaker setup?
C'mon, somebody must have flown a spinnaker on an M15...
Daniel On Jul 4, 2011, at 9:40 AM, Tom Smith wrote:
I don't have a furler, Joe, but I know you can use a drifter anyway. As Don says below, use the old jib halyard to hoist. I have a second hank installed a foot or so down from the head of the sail so I can use my downhaul. I've found that if I try to use the topmost hank, the sail jams when I need to douse it most. I imagine one of those bead loop thingees would work fine over the furled headsail. I just attach the tack of the sail to the bow fitting.
My M15 had track installed on the toe rail, so I sheeted aft some distance. Don't remember exactly where, but I can dig up a pic of the setup and send it to you if you wish. And Don's right, you can easily sheet to the stern mooring cleat. You won't get and adjustment on the sheeting angle, but that's not a big deal.
My M17 has track on the toe rail, of course, so I sheet it back pretty far as well.
I said something about poling the sail out in my previous post on this subject. Probably not necessary, or even that good an idea because even a light pole will drag the drifter down--hand controlling the sail is more fun anyway.
Like Don says, the drifter can be a handful. I looked a lot like a circus performer Saturday putting the sail up, and in front of a 40 foot Beneteau, to boot. I had the last laugh of course as I caught and passed the guy in very light air...
t
On Mon, Jul 4, 2011 at 7:43 AM, Don <sailmonty15@gmail.com> wrote:
Seems like after I bought the drifter for my M15, Jerry or someone else provided the following technique for sail controls. Looked through the archives but didn't find anything.
I have a CDI furler so I hoist the drifter on the old jib halyard. Sail controls are 1/8" line routed outside the shrouds to the back of the boat. I didn't add any special blocks or cleats, just looped the line around the stern mooring cleat. In the light, flukely air on the lake I kept them in hand to try to keep the sail full. When I questioned the size of the control line, whoever it was said "if you can't control the sail comfortably with the 1/8" line its time to drop the sail."
I experimented attaching the tack to the bow fitting, both inside and outside the pulpit and even on top of the pulpit. Occasionally tried running with two head sails. Interesting, but lots of work.
Don M15-248 On 7/4/2011 6:55 AM, Joe Murphy wrote:
Subject: Re: M_Boats: Drifter
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