On 01-Apr-14 2:26 PM, Alec McCandless wrote Hi Alec, When an M15 shows up on the market, don't dawdle. When we decided to downsize and I went looking for an M15 I lived in Connecticut (Glastonbury), and was hoping to buy one in California, till the owner reconsidered and said he loved his M15 too much to sell it. Now what? Shortly thereafter he sent me an email about an M15 for sale in Panama City, FL by the owner in Sausalito, CA. I called the owner and we had a long conversation about the condition of the boat and the trailer. It sounded very good so my wife said, "Buy it. If there is anything wrong with it you can fix it". I called him back and said I'd buy it sight unseen. A friend and I drove to Panama City in a VW-GTI, picked up the boat and drove home. The boat was in great shape with a 2 HP HONDA outboard. Later Doug Kelch told me that he had been interested in the same boat but that I had bought from under his nose. Having down-sized from a 29-footer we spent many happy years exploring areas that would have been impossible to visit with our big boat: Lake Champlain (great sailing very few powerboats); Moosehead Lake in ME; the Chesapeake; the west coast of Florida; the world becomes your oyster if you have a trailerable sailboat, and smaller is better: less time to step the mast and launch the boat ='s more sailing time. If you own a boat now then you are most likely familiar enough with boat repairs to do a lot of your own work. If you find an M15 with scratches and a few dings, they're easily fixable. Having invested the money from the sale of our 29-footer, it produced enough yearly income so that we mostly day-sailed, spending nights at a B&B. We often cooked on board / snoozed on board / and during our first sail in the M15, after lunch, my wife went down below to check out the sleeping accommodations. An hour later she reappeared and proclaimed that she could sleep as well on the M15 as we had on our old big boat (a high complement). Then she stretched out on the cockpit cushion and was soon asleep again from the almost inaudible bow wave gurgle of our new "wrinkle boat" as it headed south on Lake Champlain towards Essex on a broad reach. Alex, go to the M-Archives and you can read about problems that some of us have encountered / their solutions / tips to make living on board easier / and things like my toolbox galley which contained everything the two of us needed for luxurious living on a 15-footer (wine glasses / cork screw / pots and pans / silverware - an ideal solution for stow-able galley equipment on a 15-footer. Old age finally made me swallow the anchor, but I have been told that we rag sailors can expect to receive a fully equipped M15 from St. Peter to sail the Elysian waters after we pass through the Pearly Gates. I'm looking forward to that possibility. Connie & Katrina Benneck ex M15 #400 LEPPO ex Bolger MICRO ex Tripp-Lentsch 29 FUN TOO ex Northeast 38 RHE
Thanks to all who have replied. The information has been very helpful (and I'm happy to hear more if others want to chime in as well). Having been a backpacker (who wishes he had more time to do more), the 15 is sounding more of a possibility than I had originally thought. I'm into 'simple', so like what I'm hearing.
I think my decision may come down to what's available when the time comes and what condition those boats are in.
I haven't gone so far as to put up my Capri 22 for sale yet, but does anyone know of available 15s or 17s in New England? Or NY/eastern PA/northern NJ? -Alec