Dear Monty sailors, here is a difficult question. I own a 1982 M-17, and love it. It's never been kept in the water, and so the bottom is the original gelcoat, unpainted. I generally sail it one afternoon at a time, on the relatively small lakes here in Madison, WI, although every once in a while I would trailer it to a bigger lake.
This past summer (I got the boat at beginning of July) the boat was kept on its trailer, and each time I sailed I had to do the whole rigging/derigging game. I am now probably as good at it as I will ever get, and it takes about 50 minutes to put it up, and the same amount to take it down. Unfortunately I am also quite busy, with two kids and a full time job. Because of this, there were quite a few times I didn't go out because there was not enough time to put it up, take it down, and also sail a fair amount. A friend of mine who has a house on the lake was kind enough to offer me to start using his mooring, for free, for the foreseeable future. This would obviously solve the above problem, but I need to start thinking about bottom paint. Hoopers in Minnesota, where the boat is now for some small repair, offered me the following options: a) Just bottom paint, about $500. b) Interlux 2000E barrier coat (5 coats) + bottom paint $1750 On top of this expense I am looking at another $3-400 for a small dinghy and outboard to get to the boat. The main question I have is: is it worth it? Should I keep trailer sailing the boat (at a cost of about $250/summer for parking), get just the bottom paint and risk gelcoat blistering, or get the full deal. Any opinions? My gut feeling is that if possible I would like to try to keep this boat for a long time, I really like the way it handles. It's just that $2000 is exactly half of what I paid for it!! (Unfortunately there is no place in Madison to keep a boat rigged near the water, and I don't have the time nor the place to put the boat up on a lift to do the bottom painting myself.) Any advice will be highly appreciated. Thanks, Andrei. _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
