I'm a pretty new M17 owner and I was very impressed with how the boat did in heavy winds today. On Lake Pleasant, AZ this morning we had winds 10-15mph. I was alone so I had a single reef in and the gene was rolled in to the size of a working jib. I was very happy at that point with how it was so manageable. I later did a heave to in order to have my lunch. That's when the real wind came. My wife said the underground station clocked a 26mph gust at 11:00, when I was eating my lunch and the boat stayed in heave to without issue. I was moving at over 2 knots but very stable. I wonder if I pulled my keel up if it would of slowed down my forward movement. There was no end to the wind with it steady at about 20mph, so I rolled the gene in and sailed under main alone with a single reef still. Again I was so impressed. It handled the wind with no problem and the boat was so balanced I let the tiller go at one point for about 5 minutes. I purchased my new M17 without ever sailing one. I picked the M17 by process of elimination while reading a lot of reviews, stats and stories and fortunately it has been totally meeting my expectations. I'm going to start racing it next month, so we'll see how it does on that front. My last boat, a Columbia 23T, was so bad to windward we didn't stand a chance in the races. They had to keep asking us to motor back to the start line so they could start the next race, LOL. So I'm anxious to see how we will do. Regards, Ron McNeil Jackpot #675