Wow, Connie! Thank you so much for the information, I knew this was going to be a fabulous resource for me. I am curious, by removing teak from the toe rail to make room for the chocks, aren't you defeating the purpose of protecting the existing teak rail? I guess it does make for a cleaner run for the dock line. Do you use this chock for your anchor line as well? Thank you again for the wealth of info!!! -Rusty --- chbenneck@juno.com wrote:

Hi Rusty,

Welcome to the clan! You'll find that the M15 is a wonderful little ship.

To answer your questions:

Boom down haul:

There should be a jam cleat on the starboard side of the mast, and an eye on the port side.

The boom down haul line is tied to the eye, then goes through the eye at the bottom of the gooseneck, and back down to the jam cleat (same jam cleat as you have on the boom).

Tiller length:

My original M15 tiller length, when I bought the boat, was: 41".

I also used a Forespar tiller extension so that I could sit all the way forward in the cockpit.

However, the laminations on this tiller were coming apart so I ordered a new tiller from Bob Eeg.

This tiller was 36" long.

The Forespar tiller extension wasn't a good answer to sitting forward in the cockpit. The operating angle should be about 90 degrees between tiller extension and the tiller itself, but in this case it is more like 120 degrees - i.e., poor control.

So, I decided to build a temporary tiller extension to fit on the regular tiller, which was to accomplish two objectives:

A. Raise the forward end of the tiller to a more comfortable operating position, and,

B. Get the tiller to my preferred sitting position (forward in the cockpit).

The Eeg tiller (36" long - total length) plus my temporary extension now had a total length of 57 1/2".

My "temporary" (nothing is as permanent as a temporary solution) tiller, is now at a very comfortable operating height when I am sitting forward in the cockpit.

It is also easy to hold (without any tiller extension ). An added advantage of the longer tiller is that course corrections are effective with much less tiller movement (longer lever arm); moving the end of a 57 inch long tiller a finger's width gives you very fine course adjustments (assuming that you don't have slop between the rudder blade and the rudder cheeks).

I find it a big improvement.

There is a pin on the bottom of the extension that goes into the Forespar fitting. This locates the extension in the fore and aft direction, as well as keeping it from rotating on the tiller when pressure is applied.

The bottom of the extension is hollowed out to fit the shape of the top of the tiller.

It is held in place with a piece of Velcro around the tiller and the extension: remove the Velcro and lift the extension out of it's socket and you are back to using the regular tiller.

Bow rollers / chocks:

On my M15 I installed bow chocks for the same reasons. My boat is at a slip in a marina, and tends to rock violently from the wake of outboarders towing water skiers, and the PWCs roaring about.

I cut away a portion of the teak toe rail, added a teak pad to match the size of the base of the cleat (the cleat base was wider than the teak in the toe rail), and then through bolted the cleat to the deck.

Can't comment on bow rollers, since I don't have one, but I'm sure that someone in the group must have such an installation, and will respond to your question.

Connie

M15 #400 LEPPO Glastonbury, CT

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