My Next Dreamboat, Part 5: The (Harebrained?) M-17 Option

Ever Heard of a Montgomery 17 Motorboat?

In our seemingly endless meander through potential camp-cruising motorboat designs, we’ve often been dragged away from the original concept of a slow, easily-driven, low-powered hull…and toward designs that are probably too heavy, and maybe overpowered when placed alongside our original mandate for a 9.9hp outboard and cruising speed of 5-6 knots.

So, big relief: One courageous reader suggested an idea I was literally afraid to mention—tearing apart a revered sailboat design, the beloved Montgomery 17, in order to use its sweet fiberglass-lapstrake hull as the foundation for a small, pocket-cruising powerboat. (Heck, 9.9hp might even be too much…how about a 6hp, or 7.5hp outboard pushing the M-17 hull?)

If you are outraged by the thought of de-rigging a Montgomery 17, cutting off its pleasant-looking cuddy cabin and building a wooden pilothouse and matching cuddy…well, please blame the SCA reader who thought of this maybe-harebrained idea. (You can tear me a new one for thinking the idea has potential, though.)