Hello everyone. My wife and I have begun the process with Bob Eeg to have an M15 built. Her name will be "Julie Suzanne". As of right now we are going with the following decisions & options:
Ivory Hull with Single Blue Stripe Camcleats Longer handrails mounted atop the sliding hatch teak runner covers Electrical package with group 24 battery under v-berth with space for 2nd battery for longer cruise Tracks on the coaming for jib cars or moving cleat Stern pulpit Opening stainless ports in cabin (Can never have too much ventilation in my opinion.) Although this will be our 5th boat (22-36 feet and lived aboard the 36 footer) we are both pretty excited about this boat. They are such great looking boats and we have always heard great things about them. It will be nice to own a small boat that we can store in our garage, trailer to where ever we want, and yet still overnight on with some comfort. Honestly this is the first boat whose design I would not change (at least based on my research thus far). Everything from the cockpit size to the v-berth and the storage seems to be the best compromise for the size and the intended use. Our primary uses will be long daysails and 1-3 day short cruises with both my wife and I aboard. We live in Florida and anticipate doing plenty of trips to various cruising grounds all over the Southeast. Like most others, I work plenty of hours and will be limiting most of our trips to vacations and long weekends. Also, like every boat I have owned, I will always have a project going on with 2-3 in the planning stages.... Some already planned projects include: Leading halyards back to cockpit Jib downhaul (Have always had furlers, but with trailering and the fractional rig, I wonder if it makes sense here....) Some sort of anchor and rode storage that makes sense based on balancing the weights on the boat and the ability to quickly deploy if needed. Boom tent (Need something to make the cockpit a part of the interior based on the situation) Interior storage (Looking at some minor teak and some canvas based pouches in strategic locations) Tiller tamer or autopilot (Probably a tiller tamer at least in the immediate future) Special hatchboard for instrument mounting (Custom built board with hold GPS, depth finder and can be locked in place) We dont own a tow vehicle yet, but will be purchasing one shortly. Right now I am leaning towards a used Toyota RAV4 or Honda CRV or something similar. Based on my research the M15 is not a difficult boat to tow, and I need to keep the MPG as high as possible for obvious reasons. The intent right now is to get the 2hp 4stroke Honda outboard which appears to be standard equipment on the M15 based on my readings. I DO NOT look forward to refilling the tank while underway. I anticipate some sort of a solution to this in the near future. I know I have read some information about some great solutions to this already. Any recommendations regarding the boat or outfitting it as we move forward with the construction? Anything not listed above is currently standard and already included(such as swim ladder). Like most people who are considering a new M-boat, I have been lurking on the email group and have scanned quite a bit of the older messages (although you cant scan everything...). I have also been through all the websites I can find and have appreciated all the great information. Bob has been great to work with so far. I have had a number of email and phone discussions with him. He is working with me on options while also helping me to keep the boat simple (at least for the initial build....). Thank you all for the great information I have received from this group so far.... Chris Rechtin _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
