I've never seen a mainsheet setup like that David. I'd sure move it back to the original position. It looks like a terrible arrangement to me. The original certainly inhibits movement to-from the house, but jeez, it's the perfect sheeting arrangement for the M15 IMHO. t   Tom Smith and Jane Van Winkle M15--345  Chukar M17--064  Unnamed -----Original Message----- From: David Wood [mailto:dwood@woodatwork.com] Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2004 5:20 PM To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Subject: M_Boats: New owner -- looking for advice (long) Hello all, Thanks in large part to all of you who posted pictures of your M15s, and with a little luck, as of yesterday I'm the owner of a nicely maintained 1981 M15 (Hull #163). I've only been out on the water in her once, but I think it's the start of something good. Now for the hard part, becoming a better sailor and making the boat fit me. Becoming a better sailor will come with time and experience, but in order to get the boat "just so" I am asking for some more help from you fine folks. I've created a quick and dirty web site: www.opendoor.com/dwood/m15 and placed a bunch of pictures of the boat there. If any of you have absolutely nothing better to do, I'd appreciate those who have an opinion about M15s surfing over to my site and looking at the pictures. You can click on the thumbnails to enlarge them. Then just keep clicking "Next." There are a number of things that the previous two owners have modified on the boat, and some of them I know I will change. But others I'm not yet sure about. The standing rigging is the original 23-year old hardware, and I'm not sure how seaworthy it is. The mainsheet cleat has been moved aft and the tiller shortened, so the helmsman is forced to sit next to the transom--something I gather negatively affects the trim of the boat. The last owner built some funky shelves, a pail portapotty setup, and a battery box in the cockpit, all of which I'm going to remove and/or modify. But for now I'm just going to sail her. This winter I'll pull her into the garage and fix most of the things that need fixing and get rid of the things I don't like and replace them with things that I do. Until then I'm going to confine my sailing to the nearby lakes of southern Oregon. But long term I hope to take her out into the Pacific, and by then I hope to have made her into a more seaworthy vessel. Right now I'm not too sure about a few things like the standing rigging, not to mention my own sailing skills. So the rest of the summer will be one long shakedown cruise. Anyway, please have at me if you have the time and inclination. Most particularly I am interested in what to do with the main sheet setup. Should I put it back the way it was when Jerry Montgomery delivered her? Should I go with what's current on new M15s? Or should I install something altogether different? If you can tell by looking at the pictures, should I replace the standing rigging before I take on big wind? And are there any problems that you can see in the pictures that you think I may need to address right away? Any opinions are appreciated. And thanks again for all of the good info I got from lurking here and exploring the archives. And thanks also to Bob Eeg for letting me visit his shop and showing me how well made these little boats are. Sorry I didn't buy a new one from you. But maybe a new M17 will be in my future. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= David W. Wood -=- dwood@woodatwork.com 1981 M15 -=- Hull #163 _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats This message was scanned for viruses!!