Andrei,
Been there, done that. In the early 70s, I had a rather impatient wife and
three daughters from age 2 to 7 and a Balboa 20 (another earlier Lyle Hess
design). Over the first few months of ownership, I reduced my rig-up time from
one hour to 15 or 20 minutes. In the meantime, wife and kids would go
"fishing". Part of the solution was practice and the rest was equipment.
My next door neighbor was a retired Coast Guard Machinest and he designed and
built a mast raising system for me. He welded up a tabrinacle that hinged
above the boom allowing the boom to ramain in place with the mainsailsail
furled and covered. He also made me a pair of "legs" that were notched to fit
around the chainplates and tied together with a swivel at the other end. When
the mast was down, it rested in a roller on the tabrinacle. All of the rigging
was left attached except for the forestay and the mast and boom rested in a
gallows frame.
To raise the mast, you simply rolled it back (bungee cords kept the shrouds
organized), replaced the roller with a hinge pin and put the "legs' in place
(vertical), attached to the forestay and a rope going to the trailer winch
hook. One then just winched the mast up about halfway, then pulled it up the
rest of the way with the rope and attached the forestay. I used a lever type
on the forestay to make it easier to attach. All I had to do then was remove
the "legs" and launch. A sliding tongue extension made launching a breeze. I
spent a couple of afternoons with the boat in my dirveway practicing untill I
had it down to 15 minutes.
In the meantime, the kids had done their "fishing" and sorting through the
treasures they had found alonge the shoreline and the wife had stayed busy
Ooooohing and Ahhhhing over the kids finds. Since we would have already loaded
the ice chest and other gear at home, we were ready to start our day on the
water. The cabin of "Molly Grubble" was always a mess with with children's
books, coloring books, crayons, puzzles and other fun stuff but that was OK.
My grown daughters have fond stories to tell my grandchildren about sailing
trips all up and down the Southern California coast and a couple of trips to
Catalina.
After several years of big boats, Snipe class racing with the girls as crew, I
was again sailing with only the wife. I had a "Slipper 17" on a trailer and I
immediately rigged it like "Molly" and enjoyed several years trailering all
over the Southwest and Gulf coast. After retiring to a lakefront house with my
own boat dock in back, I have Griselda (M17 #14) moored there and don't need to
worry about rigging up. With sail slugs and lazy jacks it is about 3 minutes
to be sailing. I also have a Boston Whaler Harpoon 5.2 and guess what? It now
has a tabrinacle and "easy rig" setup but it is for sale because I like sailing
Griselda much better.
Let me assure you that the wife and kids will not become more patient with age
and that going back to the Compac after the Monty will be like trying to drink
American Beer after living in Germany for 5 years.
Ron
M17 #14
Griselda
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:20:02 -0500> To:
[email protected]> Subject: Re: M_Boats: First couple of
outings> > Andrei:> I can't imagine why it should take almost an hour longer to
set up or > take down a M-17 than a C-16. I suggest Option 5 and think rigging
> will go a lot faster once you're more familiar with your boat and > create
your own system and shortcuts. Come on over to Milwaukee and > I'll show you my
patented "Git 'Er Up" mast-raising system I made out > of a snow rake. It's
fast and works great.> > Gordon> > On Jul 10, 2008, at 10:49 PM, Andrei
Caldararu wrote:> > > Hello all,> >> > as I said earlier on, I acquired about 2
weeks ago "Hobbit", a 1982> > M-17. After sailing her four times now, I would
like some help in> > deciding on some things, and I would really appreciate
people's> > opinion on the main question below. Sorry if this message is a bit>
> longish.> >> > Until buying the M-17, I owned (and still own) a Compac 16.
Originally> > I intended on selling the C-16, but now I have doubts. The
trouble is> > that it seems that the C-16 fits for absolutely everything we
need to> > do with it, while the M-17 is a bit more problematic (see below).
But> > the C-16 doesn't sail well, and that is my biggest gripe with it...> >>
> We are a family of four, myself, my wife, and two kids ages 6 and 4.> > As
such, not too much time is available, and the kids are not the> > world's best
example of patience (both of these may improve in the> > future). We sail
mostly on the lakes in Madison, WI; they are inland> > lakes, the largest of
which is about 5-6 miles across. I would hope> > that in the future we'll take
some trips to the great lakes (Green Bay> > or Apostle Islands) but so far we
haven't done this.> >> > With the Compac, the routine is fairly simple: the
boat stays in a> > parking lot 1/4 mile from the launching ramp; I attach it to
the car,> > drive to the ramp, rig by myself, launch. If the kids come with
me,> > they play around while I rig. The whole routine takes about 25 minutes>
> (so the kids don't get too bored). If this happens in the afternoon,> > all
of us then sail for about 2-3 hours, and when we're done my wife> > takes the
kids home and I de-rig by myself, another 25 minutes. If we> > start at 5pm,
we're all home by around 9.> >> > With the Monty things are a bit more
complicated. Admittedly I am not> > yet quite up to speed in rigging it, but
today's example seems to be> > the norm. I arrived at the boat at 9:45am,
rigged alone till 11,> > sailed until 2:15, derigged and put the boat away
until 3:30. So I got> > 3 hours of sailing for two-and-a-half hours of rigging.
Not a very> > good ratio in my opinion. The one time I took my wife and kids
the> > rigging took just enough for the kids to get thoroughly bored and to> >
start pestering us enough to get us angry :-( And the worst part of it> > is
that after an hour of rigging, I am ready to go home and get in> > bed :-)> >>
> I can see now a number of options to improve on this.> >> > Option one: keep
the M-17 moored. Obviously that would reduce the> > rigging time to something
very small. The cost of this is not> > negligible, though (I expect to pay
around $800/summer for a mooring).> > However I have no experience with bottom
paint, and the Monty's bottom> > has never been painted. (It is clean as it
came from the factory.) How> > often does the bottom need painting? Every year,
or can it be skipped> > a year or two? How big a hassle is this? Is it a pity
to "dirty" the> > bottom of a clean Monty?> >> > Option two: keep the Monty
with the mast up on the trailer, near a> > marina. This would be OK, except for
the fact that the only marina> > that provides this service is on the other
side of the lake, a 30> > minute drive, and at the end of a long channel which
takes 20 minuntes> > to motor through. And the cost is about the same, around
$800-1000/> > summer.> >> > Option three: create a fleet -- keep both boats.
When in a hurry, sail> > the C-16, when time is not an issue or need more
space, sail the Monty> > (space may or may not be so much of an issue on the
C-16: we have> > sailed her with 4 adults, 5 kids, and a dog on board; we were
a bit> > cramped, but we managed. The only time the Monty would be really> >
better would be if I were to go camping with the kids; my wife swore> > that
she would not sleep in any small sized boat.) Wife may not be too> > happy with
this option> >> > Option four: sell both boats and get an M-15. The question is
how much> > space there is on an M-15 versus the C-16? Would 4 adults sit> >
comfortably in the cockpit of the M-15? It would really help if I> > could find
someone with an M-15 somewhere in my general area (Madison,> > Wi), so I could
look at it and perhaps sail together to get a feel for> > the boat.> >> >
Option five: keep only the M-17, and hope to improve my rigging> > system.
Right now I raise the mast with the system suggested on Bob's> > website (with
a 4-part and a padeye on the mast support), which works> > great but still
takes a lot of time. The rudder cannot stay on the> > boat (the rear mast
support goes in its place), rolling the mast back> > is complicated by the
spreaders, bending the mainsail on the boom is a> > pain, etc. Anyone has any
special tricks to speed things up?> >> > Option six: keep only the C-16 (sad),
and in a few years, when kids> > (and maybe wife?) are more patient, get
another M-17. I am worried> > about the fact that I have read about quite a few
people who after> > owning a Monty were never happy with anything else, so kept
buying> > them. Since a good one is hard to find (and the one I have is good),
I> > am not very inclined to become Monty-less.> >> > What do people who've
seen more of all these kinds of boats think> > about all this? Any help will be
greatly appreciated.> >> > Thanks,> >> > Andrei.> >> >
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