All right...here you go Dave.....No lectures though! ok...so the rest of the story about me "throwing my gear overboard". ( I got time to type now) Jim and I were having a blast out in the vicinity of the oil platform Gina....probably about 4 miles offshore. I was running a 150. The wind had been building and I was beyond the wind range where I should have been with that sail... I knew it.. But Big D is fairly forgiving and she was tolerating it , but barely. The water was fairly rough. The swell wasn't that large but was stacked close together...4-5 seconds at 3-4 feet with wind chop on top. The ride was sporting for sure. My windmeter was showing a beautiful steady 18 knots and I knew the 150 wasn't gonna be do-able for much longer. We had bore off a bit and were on a close reach. The boat was still heeling pretty well. I had put the autopilot on to allow me to set-up for a headsail change. I was single handed and wanted to get everything ready before I tacked over and hove to to make the swap to a 90-100% blade. Like I said the boat's motion was, well, A LOT due to the sea condition. In a couple of the shots in the video you can see the bow surging up and down a lot. It might not seem that much to you, until you try to get out there and work, with no-one at the helm. It was hard to stand up unless you were also holding onto something. I was just contemplating going down below to get the 100 right under the forward hatch and ready to go, when suddenly the boat's transom lurched up in the air and then dropped out again. The boat was rolling hard and rounding up. Fortunately, I hadn't entered the companionway yet. I ended up getting tossed onto my left knee towards the other side of the boat, ripping the knee out of my jeans and cutting my knee a little. As I turned to see what was up, I was assuming that I finally reached the point where my lack of changing out headsails had finally culminated so much weather helm that the rudder probably stalled. This was not the case. I was shocked to see, the autopilot trolling behind the boat by only the power cord. The kick in the pants was so hard that it unseated the inch and half long pivot pin from it's mount, tossed the autopilot up in the air, and the boat sailed right out from under it! LOL Now, the powercord has a two prong Perko push in deck connector on it. Any second now, it was about to pull out and that would be it for the autopilot and a nice donation to Neptune. As I am trying to get a hold of the cord I am also trying to get the tiller pushed up to windward, and get my feet back under me. I get one hand on the cord, but from where I ended up in the cockpit, I can't pull the cord far enough to jerk the autopilot back into the cockpit until I get seated, the boat turned back off the wind and then am able to hold the tiller with my foot while reaching out with both hands and walking the cord back in. Yes, it was a three ring circus! hahaha Meanwhile, Jimbo is right behind me watching this whole stupid show, I am sure laughing his ass off! (He had rigged a regular jib and was perfectly powered up and enjoying the ride.....and show. Well, here's the kicker.... After getting the Simrad back on board...I plug it back it....and it works fine!!! I guess it really is watertight!!! Way to go! Unfortunately, the jeans did not survive. I blew the knee out and then bled all over them. hahaha So there you go....the story behind the story Oh, and yes,...on the "list of things to do" is to somehow fabricate a leash that will retain the tiller-pilot in her mounts when things get "sporting"! :-) As for the rest of the sail. Made the headsail change and about a half hour later...reefed down. We had a blast! Probably stayed out another 3 hours before we came back in. You can hear me giggling like a school girl in some of the clips of the video. You'd be hard pressed to get me OR Jim to think that there was a better boat out there for what we were doing. Monty's RULE!!!!
It did take me a second look to realize what Sean was trolling overboard as he was pulling the unit back onboard. I was really glad to see that it was still working as that was not the kind of day I would want to be single handing without the benefit of my second set of hands. I spent the rest of the day eyeing my autopilot as each wave hit from behind. I am glad Sean shared the story as I know a lot of us have autopilots and would not want to lose them overboard. When I am not using mine I just take the end off the tiller and swing it back to rest on the transom. Mine has a screw in power connection and not a push pin, so I have always thought that would hold the unit if it went over the side, but the threads are plastic so they could pull out. I may think about something to hold the unit in place like a bungee. And I have to agree with Sean, I like all the small boats, but the Monty's are rock solid and had no problem in the conditions we were sailing in. Although we decided not to complete the trip to the island, I know that we would have had no problems. It was fun sailing by 40 plus foot boats all reefed up and they look over and see our little boats pounding away strong and under control. It was a great weekend!!! -----Original Message----- From: montgomery_boats-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:montgomery_boats-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Nebwest2@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 8:54 PM To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: M_Boats: Duel All right...here you go Dave.....No lectures though! ok...so the rest of the story about me "throwing my gear overboard". ( I got time to type now) Jim and I were having a blast out in the vicinity of the oil platform Gina....probably about 4 miles offshore. I was running a 150. The wind had been building and I was beyond the wind range where I should have been with that sail... I knew it.. But Big D is fairly forgiving and she was tolerating it , but barely. The water was fairly rough. The swell wasn't that large but was stacked close together...4-5 seconds at 3-4 feet with wind chop on top. The ride was sporting for sure. My windmeter was showing a beautiful steady 18 knots and I knew the 150 wasn't gonna be do-able for much longer. We had bore off a bit and were on a close reach. The boat was still heeling pretty well. I had put the autopilot on to allow me to set-up for a headsail change. I was single handed and wanted to get everything ready before I tacked over and hove to to make the swap to a 90-100% blade. Like I said the boat's motion was, well, A LOT due to the sea condition. In a couple of the shots in the video you can see the bow surging up and down a lot. It might not seem that much to you, until you try to get out there and work, with no-one at the helm. It was hard to stand up unless you were also holding onto something. I was just contemplating going down below to get the 100 right under the forward hatch and ready to go, when suddenly the boat's transom lurched up in the air and then dropped out again. The boat was rolling hard and rounding up. Fortunately, I hadn't entered the companionway yet. I ended up getting tossed onto my left knee towards the other side of the boat, ripping the knee out of my jeans and cutting my knee a little. As I turned to see what was up, I was assuming that I finally reached the point where my lack of changing out headsails had finally culminated so much weather helm that the rudder probably stalled. This was not the case. I was shocked to see, the autopilot trolling behind the boat by only the power cord. The kick in the pants was so hard that it unseated the inch and half long pivot pin from it's mount, tossed the autopilot up in the air, and the boat sailed right out from under it! LOL Now, the powercord has a two prong Perko push in deck connector on it. Any second now, it was about to pull out and that would be it for the autopilot and a nice donation to Neptune. As I am trying to get a hold of the cord I am also trying to get the tiller pushed up to windward, and get my feet back under me. I get one hand on the cord, but from where I ended up in the cockpit, I can't pull the cord far enough to jerk the autopilot back into the cockpit until I get seated, the boat turned back off the wind and then am able to hold the tiller with my foot while reaching out with both hands and walking the cord back in. Yes, it was a three ring circus! hahaha Meanwhile, Jimbo is right behind me watching this whole stupid show, I am sure laughing his ass off! (He had rigged a regular jib and was perfectly powered up and enjoying the ride.....and show. Well, here's the kicker.... After getting the Simrad back on board...I plug it back it....and it works fine!!! I guess it really is watertight!!! Way to go! Unfortunately, the jeans did not survive. I blew the knee out and then bled all over them. hahaha So there you go....the story behind the story Oh, and yes,...on the "list of things to do" is to somehow fabricate a leash that will retain the tiller-pilot in her mounts when things get "sporting"! :-) As for the rest of the sail. Made the headsail change and about a half hour later...reefed down. We had a blast! Probably stayed out another 3 hours before we came back in. You can hear me giggling like a school girl in some of the clips of the video. You'd be hard pressed to get me OR Jim to think that there was a better boat out there for what we were doing. Monty's RULE!!!! _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats When posting, remember that there is no privacy on the Internet! ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1392 / Virus Database: 1520/3869 - Release Date: 08/31/11
participants (2)
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Jim Ellsworth -
Nebwest2＠aol.com