I use almost the same system as Howard except for one added piece of gear. I made a gin pole to gain some leverage on the tackle. I found the connecting points at the stem head and mast head were not giving me a comfortable control on the mast. By adding the triangulation I gained a lot of control and power. It does add to the time factor....but I can live with 10 minutes or so. Also, I have a pretty heavy tack shackle on the stemhead fitting so that makes it handy to just clip into the lower mainsheet block shackle. I then run the sheet through the jib halyard turning block and then onto the wench....I mean winch. Tim D Howard:I'll relate what I do and I do it alone, so it works for me. If you have help, it's real easy and no stress at all on the beer wench. Assuming the mast is pinned to the mast support bracket, and mast crutch still in place (instead of rudder), and side stays hooked on and loose, so they don't bind, I put a snatch block on the forward fixture where the jib tack will be attached (right behind the pin for the forestay). A line (spare halyard or long dock line) hooks to the jib halyard, runs through the block and back to the cockpit. I put two wraps around the sheet winch (not the wench - remember, I do this alone). When I'm ready to hoist the mast, I have the line from the front handy, then push the mast up as far as I can with both hands...to the point of standing on the cockpit seats, then holding the mast up with one hand, use the other to gather in the slack so that the line is now holding the mast up. If you drop the mast holding hand, the line really tightens, but the mast doesn't drop much. I can then move forward a bit, raise some more mast, tighten, etc. About halfway up (45 degrees) you can then hoist it on up with the line alone. The shrouds (side stays) keep it from falling off to either side and the backstay stops it vertical. Tie off the line to the jib sheet cleats, then calmly walk forward to pin the forestay. Once that is pinned, tighten the turnbuckle to tension the rig. Do this procedure backwards to drop the mast. If you start out with about 3 wraps on the sheet winch, you can start letting out a little slack and the mast will start inching down. Past 45 degrees, that line will really tighten up, but you can eventually catch it to let it down easy. As is well documented, the M17 likes a good deal of mast rake. I'd guess if you hang a weight from the main halyard, it should hang out about 4 to 6 inches or so from the main tack on the gooseneck (assuming the boat is level.....put a level on the cockpit seats to level the boat while on the trailer). The right amount of mast rake will give you a little weather helm and she will point higher. That can be found on the msog.org site. Good luck and if this process blows up, I don't know where you heard it from! Howard M17 #278 "Audasea" On Mar 12, 2008, at 1:29 PM, Rodney Holland wrote:

I knew there had to be something of value related to stepping the mast at the Montgomery website. I spent my lunch looking around and found a checklist someone had put there under the "Owner's info" tab I believe. I'm sure that will be helpful. If anyone has words of wisdom to help this go smoothly though please sing out. My bride didn't want the boat anyway so anything to help the inaugural launch go smoothly will be appreciated! (Heck, it was here family that got me hooked on sailing for the 1st time 30 years ago!)

_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats

_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.518 / Virus Database: 269.21.7/1327 - Release Date: 3/12/2008 1:27 PM

I read up on this quite a bit a couple years ago and found that, if you're in fresh water, nobody really makes anything that they can/will promise will help. Fresh water is a more difficult problem than salt water. Google lightning, sailboats. There's several studies on the net about this. Rik "Stupid is supposed to be painful" .... Rik Sandberg Thomas Howe wrote:

I just had a friend of mine get his Ericson 32 zapped by lightning, and totaled! Now, I'm trying to figure out how to protect my M-17 from lightning strikes while it sits in the slip at the lake. Have any of you thought about or done anything to take lightning into consideration?

Thomas Howe Mailto:Thomas@TEHowe.com O --------(\ ---------- ~ (\ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ (\ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats