Hi Cherri, Barnegat Bay sounds like an ideal sailing area for a "thin" water boat. That's an area I haven't explored. We've sailed up the coast from Cape May to Atlantic City, to New York City, but haven't gotten behind the barriers.
That should be a fun sailing area with an M15. Your West Virgina boat is one I haven't heard of before - he hasn't been on our website. Random comments in no particular order: Most of us are of the opinion that a 2 HP Honda outboard is an ideal motor for this boat. Some like a long shaft motor while I think, most of us have the regular shaft length motor. The HONDA engine is a four cycle engine, not a two cycle engine, so you only put gasoline in the tank: no mixing of oil and gasoline as is usual in two cycle engines. The main advantages are: no fouled spark plugs (very common on 2 cycle engines - and usually at the most inappropriate time: Murphy strikes again!) - and no mixing of fuel and oil. The HONDA has a pressure lubrication system, just like a car; so you have to change the crankcase oil at the end of the season. A lift type motor mount for the outboard is also a big plus. The original is a fixed mount, and on a starboard tack you drag the bottom of the outboard through the water. I installed a Fulton lift mount last year, and that's the way to go. The bottom of the outboard is now completely out of the water when sailing. M15s seem to come in a variety of sail locker configurations. Mine has a deep port locker where I store my fenders;cockpit cushions; mooring lines; anchor and anchor rode; fuel for the outboard; cleaning bucket and supplies..... The starboard locker was a shallow bin for small stuff: car keys; eyeglasses' sail stops; tiller extender; etc. After living with that for a year, I decided I wanted access to all the "lost" volume that I couldn't reach. So, I carefully cut around the edge of the shallow locker and made it removable. Now I have the best of both worlds: the shallow bin for small stuff; but lift it out, and now I have space to store my swim ladder; extra cockpit cushions; my paddle/boat hook; and my bimini top. A big improvement. Some of the other M15 owners report having two shallow sail lockers, which leaves you with no space for all the normal cockpit things you need; as I listed above. Others only have two deep sail lockers. As I mentioned I bought my boat sight-unseen, so I wasn't aware of these differences that Jerry made in the models of the M15 he produced. But now, I find my deep / shallow - removable sail locker solution the best compromise for a boat this size. It allows you to use every bit of space within the hull. Sails: a main and a jib is all I have and so far, it is enough for my type of sailing. Owners up on the Great Lakes and on the West Coast have cruising spinnakers (gennikers) but to use them, you have to be holding a course for longer periods of time. An hour's run is not worth the extra effort of sail changing to achieve a slight increase in speed - or is it? That's up to you.....! Some M15s were set up with a jib downhaul, and reefing points in the jib, with it's own downhaul, and lines leading to the cockpit. Goodness. The Trailrite trailer - which seems to have been the standard trailer supplied with the M15s, is very ruggedly built, and if you have some rust, it probably is no big deal. I installed guides for the keel, when retrieving the boat, to keep it centered over the rollers. Design is made of plastic pipe and is in the archives. Great improvement, particularly if you are going to be single-handing. Connie ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/. _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
