After 6 months of tinkering, modifications, improvements and countless hours of
sanding (gel coat education), I finally launched my M-15 this past weekend!! I
made several mistakes and looked less than graceful as I pulled away from the
dock, and equally awkward as I came back in, but all in all it was a great
first outing.
I took my 2 boys with me and we spend 3 hours on a shake down cruise around the
Baltimore Harbor. I had each boy working his side of the jib sheet, but I
think they enjoyed laying down in the cabin riding the wakes of the speed
boaters the best. I tried to slip in a little education as we rounded Fort
McHenry, but that didn't go over too well.
As we approached the dock on our way in, I asked my older son to release the
main. He was having problems so I asked my younger son to take the tiller
while I went forward to help with the main. By the time I got the main down, I
looked over and we were passing the dock which was 50 yards from the port side.
I looked at the young captain as he had his hand on the tiller and he
exclaimed that he didn't want to run into the dock so he steered the boat away.
It was comical. I fired up the kicker and floated to the dock.
This was my first outing in a Monty and boy was it stable. The boat hardly
leaned at all. My previous daysailor was built for racing and it would heal in
the slightest breeze. We were bounced around a bit when the power boaters
would pass, but we stayed dry and didn't seem to have any real issues. As I
become more comfortable with this boat I look forward to putting her through
her paces.
Since the M-15 doesn't have a support for the boom when the main is lowered,
does anyone have any ideas for improving the lowering of the main which does
not fill the cockpit with boom and sail?
Thanks,
Skip Campion
M-15 #201
Wild Guppy
________________________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from
AOL at AOL.com.
_______________________________________________
http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
