My first few times out with the Ultima-11 did involve a lot of duct tape, as I didn't have any counterweights and the fork mount really needs balancing due to that big primary mirror. So I filled a couple heavy bags with 16d nails and duct-taped them to the front of the scope.

And I do use a gravity-assist mechanism, but thankfully, there's no water involved. I have so much gear hanging on this overloaded mount that I adjust the counterweight on the bottom rail so that gravity is driving the Byers gearing, so all that thing has to do is govern the speed of the right ascension motion -- it doesn't actually have to move the telescope.

So far, it working out well. But it's been really windy for the last few nights, and I've got no cure for the wind's effect on my images. I wonder what Rube would do about that...