Regarding your wondering about bottom paint . . . When I first saw a Montgomery with bottom paint, I thought "What a shame."? I thought that it unforgiveably wrecked the beauty of the lapstrake shear.? Fast forward a couple of decades, where now my M15 is suspended from the shop rafters, getting hundreds of (thankfully) small gelcoat blisters -- and a half dozen large ones -- repaired, followed by Epiglass, Interprotect barrier coat, and ACT bottom paint.? Believe me, when your hull is hanging there full of holes you've had to gouge into it to cut out and clean the blisters, "What a shame" is very mild compared to your revised thinking about the?wonder of osmosis.
So now the maintenance of the bottom is no longer optional for me, and yet I have to admit that it would have been nearly impossible to talk me into a preventative barrier coat and bottom paint earlier, and you may feel this resistance, too.? I mean, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?? The inanity of that adage has now set me back many hundreds of dollars and every spare hour of time I've had for the past several weeks, during which I also haven't been sailing in one of the finest summers I've seen in years. I too would recommend having a reputable marina take care of this, unless you're pretty handy.? I have the shop space (big outbuilding that came with the place), the power and hand tools, the laser, a lot of mechanical and construction experience -- and I still would?NEVER do this again on my own (I mean, including the extensive blister repairs.)? I would give up owning a boat, first.? The barrier coat and paint aren't all that difficult, but there's more to even that than meets the eye.? For example, your hull has to be scrubbed with some pretty nasty solvents to de-wax it (sanding alone won't accomplish this).? Also, you have to figure out how you're going to get access to the bottom, and design and assemble that set-up.? And you have to figure out how to get a nice level bootstripe across all those lapstrake ridges!? The marina is all set up for all of this. I'm talking here about the situation in which the boat isn't used as a "trailerable" but sits in the water for extended periods of time, which sounds like one of the plans you're seriously considering.? (And I have to admit, those years when mine was in a slip and I could just drive over after work, hop on board and head out within minutes, were the highest-frequency sailing seasons in my life.)? When the slip fee climbed closer to $1000 (Twin Cities, MN, metro area) for the short northern season, I decided the convenience had become too expensive.? Recently I saw that many slips are empty, now at mid-summer, and available.? Must be the economy.? Maybe the prices have come down, but I'm strictly a trailer-sailor now. Will you ever have a gelcoat problem if you don't barrier coat and paint a moored boat?? You can't know.? Kind of like buying insurance -- you hate to do it, you're never sure you have enough, and you're glad you're covered when the risk becomes reality.? I will say that bottom paint isn't going to look any worse at all than does a slimy layer of algae or a bootstripe that's actually a scum line, and with barrier coat underneath it to fight osmotic contamination of the hull, you've "covered your asset" about as well as you can. -----Original Message----- From: Robbin Roddewig <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats <[email protected]> Sent: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 7:25 am Subject: Re: M_Boats: First couple of outings Hi Andrei, sorry to hear you are having some issues. I have made some similar calculations having had a C-16, M-15 and M-17 in that order. I also moved away from the C-16 because of the lack of pointing and slow sailing. The M-15 was not quite large enough for more than two of the boys to come along and I have four. My wife is not upset that she cannot come. I trailered the C-16 to the bay and the M-15 as well since I could keep them in my garage but moved to keeping the M-15 on the hard with the mast up and boom on. This was a much better solution and I should have been more clever and had a cover for the main so it could stay on. I keep my M-17 at a mooring because the launching, packing, washing etc was not fun and my kids (who are teens) and I were too tired out after hauling out. I now have started to single hand the M-17 since two of my crew are now overseas (one crewing in Sydney harbor, lucky sod!) and so having the boat in the water pretty much ready to go is a great option. I can offer a couple of thoughts. I would not be put off by bottom paint. However if you go this route have barrier coat put on before the bottom paint. Fresh water is more apt to find any areas on the hull that may blister and the barrier will help prevent this. Having done repairs and new bottom jobs on the CP-16 and M-17 I would strongly recommend hiring out the bottom work. Most marinas do this as a matter of course on larger boats and yes they do new anti fouling every year. Your mooring fees are pretty cheap compared to my area but I do not know your situation in terms of afford ability. I like having the boat in the water and the only draw back is the cash. But in my case with the boat an hour and a half drive away leaving my 5.7liter V-8 and taking my 2 liter 4 banger makes things more appealing with gas so pricey too! All the best, Robbin 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 time s 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 > riggin g 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 perh aps 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. > > _______________________________________________ > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats > > > _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
