Unfortunately, there is no way to lighten the wine load if you're avoiding marina stops. Only leaving the wine behind would work and that would simply be uncivilized IMHO. :-) Mark Dvorscak M15 AD (After David) (those who sailed in Larry Yake's SJ cruises will understand) M23 Faith (no wine supply worries here) On Thu, Aug 5, 2021, 12:27 <casioqv@usermail.com> wrote:
One can always use 'ultralight backpacking' methods to provision an M15 for a long trip. People regularly do week long trips with only 10lbs of supplies + 5lb/day water and 1-2lb/day of dehydrated food... and it's even easier in an M15 since you don't need a tent, sleeping pad, or extreme cold sleeping bag! A watermaker or filter (for fresh water) could even reduce the water weight for long trips. There's also a lot of good advice out there on kayak camping, which is highly applicable to the M15. There's really no reason to carry heavy cargo for long cruises on an M15.
I took this $12 online course from Cape Falcon Kayak on packing for kayak trips, which helped me drastically reduce the weight when doing longer trips on my M15:
https://cape-falcon-kayak.thinkific.com/courses/lightweight-camping-for-kaya...
Sincerely, Tyler
----- Original Message ----- From: "Edward Epifani" <edepifani@hotmail.com> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" < montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Thursday, August 5, 2021 11:26:09 AM Subject: M_Boats: Re: M15 or M17
I have no experience with the 17 so I’ll not comment on that. I just finished a week of sailing boot camp on my M-15 on Humboldt bay in Nor Cal. It was solo sailing, sailing with one guest, and two guests. Light -moderate air, occasional gusts, mid tide cycle currents. I found the info on the website very useful and accurate (Dave Scobies blog, another owners blog). My impression is that the boat is unusually responsive for a “ displacement” hull, if trim and balance is paid attention to: almost dinghy like.Solo, I kept myself as far forward as possible. A tiller extension is really required for this. With three I had one guest ride in the companionway. The two of of us in the cockpit were opposite next to cabin,heeled to leeward to keep sails full. I made the occasional dive to the windward side in gusts,hip to hip with the cockpit passenger. The boat sailed very well to windward with constant attention to sheeting. All gear was carefully stowed to maintain trim. No heavy stuff in cockpit lockers. Camping gear on aft part of bunk flat. But only as much as I could carry on my back. 2hp Honda OB on stern. For longer cruise I’d store it in cockpit locker. The boat is so handy that all docking and mooring was under sail. It’s clear to me that the boat needs both sails to balance well. Both blogs cover sail reduction sequence well. I will rig two part jiffy reefing on boom. And practice. In my experience It is essential to safety and seamanship to be able to reef quickly underway The new spectra lines make it possible to rig reefing with small diameter lines with little wind resistance. Even lazy jacks. The boat hove to well. We had to stop for a big freighter to be tug spun in the channel, and she looked right smart politely waiting. The Japanese crew was obviously relieved and waved from the bridge. The boat needed a little more main trim to heave to than I am used to but with practice it was fine. I would not load this boat down with piles of gear, at the risk of annihilating her best sailing qualities. Then she just becomes another squat tub. Ok for down wind but plan on motor sailing upwind. Overload in cockpit destroys windward ability. It’s pretty much over when you put 5-6 inches of transom in the water. If one is a gear heavy downwind passage sailor, a bigger boat might better serve. As one wishes, it’s a “free” country. Most of the modern cruising fleet is happy to plod along, and motor half the time…, so be it, as long as you are happy.That is not my particular preference. A note of grim humor: after a lot of sailing without incident, I managed to fall off the boat on the hard while exiting after final check for a three hundred mile tow home. Foot stool capsized and I rolled on top of it. Hurts much more than falling in water, BTW. Regards, Ed, M-15 375 Murrelet. Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 4, 2021, at 11:43 AM, jerry montgomery <jmbn1@outlook.com> wrote:
Dave's right; the 17 is a bit faster because of the length, and you can take more stuff with you. With the 15, you need to catch more fish.
jerry