----- Original Message ----- From: "Conbert H. Benneck" <chbenneck@sbcglobal.net> To: "Montgomery Boats" <montgomery_boats-bounces@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2010 12:33 PM Subject: Great ideas for 15 & 17 Montgomery boats.

Hi Gang,

Happy New Year, and may 2010 give you lovely broad reaches on all the courses you may choose to follow.

In my latest issue of "MESSING ABOUT IN BOATS" January 2010, published by Bob Hicks, 29 Burley St., Wenham, MA 01984, there is a superb article about modifications a sailor made to his 16 foot sailboat and to it's trailer for easy one man operation. The article is by: Dan Rogers, pages 42 to 48 is titled: "So Little Time..... So Many Holes to Drill, the process of simplicating and adding lightness. He added lots of good photos of his modifications.

His aim was to use his boat and van to travel the USA, by himself, sailing wherever he was so inclined. To do this, he had to set up the boat for easy single handed mast stepping and unstepping - ashore or afloat. He describes the various steps in his systematic development process that he went through; what was tried and didn't work; what was changed and why; the next problems that arose; and his next steps at optimizing the whole mast stepping and unstepping process.

He rigged up a gin pole and tackle arrangement to control mast raising and lowering. He added lower shrouds in line with the mast pivot point so that the mast could only go up and down in a straight line, and couldn't fall off to one side or the other. His system also allowed him to stop the raising process - cleating off the mast raising halyard - so that he could clear any tangles, halyard hang-ups, etc., before continuing the raising process. The mast he was using was 22 feet long (he increased his main sail size, thereby requiring the longer mast) and it had to be slid fore and aft. To make that easier, he built a stern mast support with rollers which allowed him to easily slide the mast forward, after it was lowered, into it's road-ready position.

He added a multi-part tackle to the forestay so that he could just clip it in place and didn't have to fumble looking for clevis pins and rings to fasten the forestay.

His trailer modifications are also noteworthy.

He wanted to be able to back the trailer into the water and not put the rear wheels of his Chevy van in the water. At this point he also wanted to be able get on board the boat for the launching by stepping from the van to the trailer tongue to the boat. His solution was to build a walkway on either side of the trailer tongue on which he could really walk and work.

He found that the angle of normal ramps got the stern of his boat in the water, but his boat wasn't about to float off. He came up with two solutions to this problem.

- the first was to install a second trailer wheel jack on the top of the trailer, pointing upwards, with a "Vee" block in place of the wheel that the jack normally has. This "Vee" block then fitted on the lower bow of his boat, lifting the bow up in the air which immersed the stern further into the water, and allowed the boat to easily slide into the water. (the sliding also had to be controlled, so he has a neat solution for that problem too)

- the second was to raise his towing hitch on the van. He raised it as much as he could, (8") which also caused the stern to be lower in the water during launch, and helping the boat float off the trailer. His example, "....lift the handles of the wheelbarrow to dump the load"

These two ideas allowed him to effortlessly launch and retrieve his sailboat all by himself, without any external help.

He discusses many more ideas he experimented with; modified; tried again; and now has things optimized, which include all electrical wiring systems allowing the car alternator to also charge the boat battery while on the road. He added side and back-up lights for easier parking in tight places; a tool box; a fresh water tank for rinsing off his electric trailer brakes when the rig was out of the water; a cornucopia of ideas and experience to make the life of a trailer sailor easier.

To guide his boat onto the trailer he added 2 X 4 side railings that line up the boat over the keel rollers.

Our Montgomery website should ask Bob Hicks for permission to reprint the full article. It is the very best article of it's kind I have ever read.

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MESSING ABOUT IN BOATS is a wonderful little magazine. It's aim is mostly at small boats owners such as our Montgomery 15 & 17, as well as rowing, and paddling stories. Bob Hicks has old stories as well as modern ones, and most of the stories are what his readers submit. What you don't find in MAIB is the usual "the Pointy end is called the bow" and the "blunt end is called the stern" that fill most of the "regular' sailing magazines - or tests of medium sized cruising boats 45 to 60 feet long..... that only cost $249,900 plus accessories and extras....

It's a delightful read whenever it arrives, and this article is an example of what you can expect.

Connie

Charlie Matthews used to write about his M15 trips on the St. Johns River in Florida, and he is the one we have to thank for his ingenious Tool Box Galley.