Let's not get carried away with the stealth racer. For me, first and foremost it must be a very capable cruising boat. Capable enough for a Gulf Stream crossing for a 3 month cruise in the Bahama's. I was in a Catalina 22T with the anchor well. It took too much space out of the forpeak, reduced the foot room by almost 16 inchs and I did not care for it. Stability comes before performance - but I love the performance of my M15G. I would probably favor the tall rig as boats this size mostly coastal cruise (light airs) and can avoid the really nasty stuff and if caught can reef down enough to get to a safe harbor. I increased the sail area of my M15 Gaff cutter from the Bermuda sloop by 30% trying to retain the light air performance and don't regret it at all. With the lower sail plan it handles the gusts quite well and does not have to reef as quickly as I anticipated. If I could get by without an engine I would so keep that light air performance. With a 6' 6" beam it should move pretty well in light air. This is where Jerry's magic comes to the table. The M15 sails like a dinghy but handles some pretty rough seas and weather so maybe a little more stability than the M15. As to ventilation, if you ever have to close yourself up in the M15 cabin it will soon be raining inside so I never close the boat up when I am inside.. I have never had a boat with opening ports so I never knew that they leaked so frequently. If that is the case the deck vent or the hatch is preferable. Most boats I see with hatches seem to take a lot of damage to the mechanism and the edges so I would lean towards a removable deck vent. I think a full dorade box on the deck would be a bit much but would be great if two of them were integrated into the forward corners of the trunk house. I would take my M15 anywhere that an M17 can go but the M17's can't follow the M15s into the shallow areas so make sure it has a sailable shallow draft. I am making a shallow draft rudder with a plate on the bottom to be able to sail in 14" of water. Thanks Doug Kelch --- On Thu, 8/6/09, jerry <jerry@jerrymontgomery.org> wrote: More market research! .. .. .. Questions: The cabin, which fits in with the forward hatch. I have drawn the boat with a "Montgomery style" house similar to the existing 15 and 17. A problem is that there is not room for a "real" forward hatch unless we go to a trunk house type of cabin , with a traditional, more vertical forward panel. This will give us another 4 or 6" of cabin deck space in front of the mast, enough for a fwd hatch, without encroaching on the foredeck. How do you feel about this? Is the forward hatch worth a Hess style house? The only disadvantage of a trunk house is a bit more windage sailing upwind, which is drag. I can live with it and I wonder if some might prefer it. It also has a bit more headroom sitting on the head. Windows. What percentage of you would like the option of opening ports? All the ones I've seen on the market ( and I really haven't paid much attention for years) are pretty traditional and would go well with a trunk house. If we picked a good opening window we would probably design a non-opening port to go with it as standard equipment. In any case we would need to use two windows per side to leave the middle part of the sides of the house uncut, for strength. Any thoughts on this? Personally I'd opt for no fwd hatch, and use a dorade vent which works for me because of where I sail, but I realize that most of you do not sail in CA and Mexico. Also, the slap slap of anchoring stern-to doesn't really bother me when I sleep. I just pretend it's Mom's heartbeat. This is a subtle thing but an ongoing discussion is just where do we put the line on stability versus speed? I have always preferred the tall rig 17 to the normal one because it has a touch more speed. Yes, it has to reef or downshift the jib a bit earlier, but so what? If you sail in an area where it blows 20 regularly I would expect you to feel differently, but how many of us do? I would rather have a spirited boat in the light stuff, but I realize this is just me. With most any fractional rig it works best to go to a smaller headsail before reefing the main, mostly for the sake of forestay tension, but it's not a big deal unless you want to win a race. You 15 owners- would you rather have a bit more ballast and not have the boat quite as lively in the light stuff, or is it about right? How about the 17? How often do you wish you had a tall rig? Gary O, who is as knowledgeable as I, blew the mast on his 17 and had worn out sails, and he replaced the rig with a tall rig. How many of you would do this if fSaced with the same situation? The 15 and the 17 have earned their reputations in three ways; they are well built, they are seaworthy, and they are remarkably fast for their lengths. I really expect to make the 16 as fast as a 17 because of up-to-date design and technology, but it must also be as stable and seaworthy. I have had the thought before that I'd take a 15 anywhere I would a 17, and the new boat needs to be included in this. Any comments? jerry _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!