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"Little Breeze"
1982 Montgomery 15 - Hull Number 117
We usually head out to sail in the mornings and then anchor off Waikiki to have lunch. You can see the Waikiki skyline in several of the photos and of course the most famous volcanic crater in the world... Diamond Head, located on the Southeast Coast of Oahu at the end of Waikiki Beach, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It was originally named Laeahi by the ancient Hawaiians. The name meant "brow of the tuna" and looking at the silhouette of the crater from Waikiki, you can see the resemblance. The current name came was given to the crater by British sailors in the 1800's. When they first saw the crater at a great distance, the calcite crystals in the lava rock appeared to glimmer in the sunlight. The sailors mistakenly thought there must be diamonds in the soil.
Aloha from Hawaii! We learned about the history of "little Breeze" after we found her for sale. We looked at the Montgomery site and found mention of her there and that is when we realized she needed to be rescued and resurrected. When we called Bob Eeg of Montgomery Boats, we found she had some special rigging that the prior owner had added, to include a solid aluminum tiller and was mostly a stock production craft. See press release below:
In June 1982, Little Breeze, a nearly stock Montgomery 15 (same lay-up in the hull and deck and the same rig as every other Montgomery 15) set sail from California, headed for Hawaii.
Mike Mann, her owner and sole passenger, arrived in Oahu 36 days later- a remarkably quick passage for a boat of 15 feet. Mike encountered the full range of weather, from dead calm to catching the tail end of Hurricane Daniel. Through it all Mike says the boat "handled extremely well." Of course, the Montgomery 15 wasn't designed for crossing oceans, but the Little Breeze passage to Hawaii illustrates the fact that the Montgomery 15 is a very seaworthy vessel. You don't have to be coastal cruising to be concerned about seaworthiness the safety of you and your loved ones is just as important when you're on an inland lake.
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