Hello all, does anyone here have first hand experience with the Balboa 20? How would she compare to the M-17? Faster, slower, better or worse sailing, harder to maintain, etc.? All opinipons will be appreciated. Thanks, Andrei.
Andrei, I owned a Balboa 20 in the early 70s when I had brown hair and three small children. It is, like the M17, a lyle hess design and handled very well and was faster than other similar swing keel boats of that era. The boat had a lot more interior space than the Montgomery 17 and was comfortable for our young family. My wife and I shared the V berth, the oldest daughter had the quarter berth and the youger two girls shared the folded dinette. We did most of our meals under the cockpit awning and the kids spent hours in the cabin reading and coloring. We initially sailed "Molly Grubble" out of Newport Beach California and trailered her all up and down the California coast and out to Lake Mead. Our voyages included two trips to Catalina Island and one day trip to Anacapa island to watch the seals and sea otters. When I was hired for a new job on the East coast, I trailered her coast to coast behind a 4 cylinder Volvo wagon (that was a real adventure). I sailed her for another year on the North shore of Mass Bay but had to sell her when the cost of living in New England caught up with me. I regretted it for years. My only real objections to the boat was that the rudder was deeper than the raised keel (seems to be a Lyle Hess design characteristic) and there was a tendency for the keel pivot bolt to leak. Like most swing keel boats, the lowered keel was a bit deeper than ideal. That was no real problem on the SoCal coast or in New England but might make going to windward on the Texas coast a bit of a problem. If I were a young man with small children I would certainly consider another Balboa 20. As it is, I am pushing 70 and the M17 is all the old lady I sleep with and I need. I live on a lake and have my own boat dock so I keep a "fleet" of little boats and a pontoon barge for when the girls come home dragging spouses and herds of grandkids (great grands even). Ron "Whitebeard" M17 # 14, Griselda.
From: andreic@math.wisc.edu To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:02:17 -0500 Subject: M_Boats: Balboa 20
Hello all,
does anyone here have first hand experience with the Balboa 20? How would she compare to the M-17? Faster, slower, better or worse sailing, harder to maintain, etc.? All opinipons will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrei.
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I owned an Ensenada 20 that had the same hull as the Balboa 20. It was a nice camper, but it didn't point nearly as well as an M17, IMHO. Gary Hyde. Sent from my iPhone :-) On Mar 23, 2009, at 4:02 PM, Andrei Caldararu <andreic@math.wisc.edu> wrote:
Hello all,
does anyone here have first hand experience with the Balboa 20? How would she compare to the M-17? Faster, slower, better or worse sailing, harder to maintain, etc.? All opinipons will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrei.
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I own one of the first balboa 20's- I think it was # 26. It survived a bunch of trips to Catalina Isl. i'd guess it was maybe not quite as fast as a 17, mostly because of a less-than-perfect rig and the big hole in the bottom of thbe hull where the keel recessed. I never hd a bit of trouble with it (mostly made it myself; I was working for Arthur at the time) but that big slab of cast iron hanging from a pin always scared me. Ventures and Catilinas shared thbe same type of keel and now and then one goes "bombs away" and goes to the bottom of the sea. Wouldn't want that to happen half way to the island. I didn't have kids then, but had a good time with a GF or two. Lyle Hess and I did the tooling on the 20 in exchange for a boat for each of us. I sold mine to start my business, but Lyle kept his for man y years. When I made the first 17 we had a race and I kicked his butt! I'll have to admit that he was using sails that were several years old. All in all, a very good boat for the time. This might be partly my ego speaking, but the 17 is a much more "together" boat. We eliminated the 2 flaws in the 20; the rig and the silly swing keel. Several times, in races, I came across B-20's and never had a problem with them, but then I always had a well-tuned boat with near-perfect sails so it's hard to compare. Could have been a lot different with one that was welll-tuned and sailed by someone who was really serious. jerry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gary M Hyde" <gmhyde1@mac.com> To: "Montgomery Sailboats >" <For and about Montgomery Sailboats<montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 5:29 PM Subject: Re: M_Boats: Balboa 20
I owned an Ensenada 20 that had the same hull as the Balboa 20. It was a nice camper, but it didn't point nearly as well as an M17, IMHO. Gary Hyde.
Sent from my iPhone :-)
On Mar 23, 2009, at 4:02 PM, Andrei Caldararu <andreic@math.wisc.edu> wrote:
Hello all,
does anyone here have first hand experience with the Balboa 20? How would she compare to the M-17? Faster, slower, better or worse sailing, harder to maintain, etc.? All opinipons will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrei.
_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!
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I always worried about that 300 lb swing keel too, especially since the pivot bolt was inside the cabin and leaked the first time I launched the boat new. I had to dress the pivot spacer and re-install it. Gary Hyde Sent from my iPhone :-) On Mar 24, 2009, at 2:56 PM, jerry <jerry@jerrymontgomery.org> wrote:
I own one of the first balboa 20's- I think it was # 26. It survived a bunch of trips to Catalina Isl. i'd guess it was maybe not quite as fast as a 17, mostly because of a less-than-perfect rig and the big hole in the bottom of thbe hull where the keel recessed. I never hd a bit of trouble with it (mostly made it myself; I was working for Arthur at the time) but that big slab of cast iron hanging from a pin always scared me. Ventures and Catilinas shared thbe same type of keel and now and then one goes "bombs away" and goes to the bottom of the sea. Wouldn't want that to happen half way to the island. I didn't have kids then, but had a good time with a GF or two.
Lyle Hess and I did the tooling on the 20 in exchange for a boat for each of us. I sold mine to start my business, but Lyle kept his for man y years. When I made the first 17 we had a race and I kicked his butt! I'll have to admit that he was using sails that were several years old. All in all, a very good boat for the time. This might be partly my ego speaking, but the 17 is a much more "together" boat. We eliminated the 2 flaws in the 20; the rig and the silly swing keel.
Several times, in races, I came across B-20's and never had a problem with them, but then I always had a well-tuned boat with near- perfect sails so it's hard to compare. Could have been a lot different with one that was welll-tuned and sailed by someone who was really serious.
jerry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gary M Hyde" <gmhyde1@mac.com> To: "Montgomery Sailboats >" <For and about Montgomery Sailboats<montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 5:29 PM Subject: Re: M_Boats: Balboa 20
I owned an Ensenada 20 that had the same hull as the Balboa 20. It was a nice camper, but it didn't point nearly as well as an M17, IMHO. Gary Hyde.
Sent from my iPhone :-)
On Mar 23, 2009, at 4:02 PM, Andrei Caldararu <andreic@math.wisc.edu> wrote:
Hello all,
does anyone here have first hand experience with the Balboa 20? How would she compare to the M-17? Faster, slower, better or worse sailing, harder to maintain, etc.? All opinipons will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrei.
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I have my M-17 steel centerboard out and have arranged for it to be sand blasted (not with sand). I know I need to coat it almost immediately. For my boat I have used Interlux barrier coat and was going to use this for the board. But I do not have any left and you have to buy quite a bit. West System has a barrier coat additive 422 that looks like I could add to smaller batches of epoxy. Has anyone used this product? Any advice? Thanks Robbin M-17 #056
participants (5)
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Andrei Caldararu -
Gary M Hyde -
jerry -
robbin roddewig -
Ronnie Keeler