Jerry, I own an M15 and am very happy with her. However, if I didn't have her already, I would be interested in a 14 or 15 foot boat that was light enough to be launched and pulled safely up hill by a small car, and which could be beached without sacrificing ballast or decent upwind ability. I like also the concept of both water ballast and lead slug/ daggerboard. I would also be very interested in the simplicity of a cat rig if the loss of windward ability weren't too much. I would pay the extra money for a carbon deck to achieve the strength and lightness of the carbon. Regards, Ron C. ________________________________ From: jerry montgomery <jerry@jerrymontgomery.org> To: montgomery forum <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Friday, March 16, 2012 1:04 PM Subject: M_Boats: (no subject) Hi- Almost three years ago I asked the members of the M list for advice and opinions on ideas that we had regarding a new project that eventually became the Sage 17. We gave great consideration to your opinions and ideas and there is absolutely no doubt that it’s a better boat because of you. The checks are in the mail! We’re starting to get serious about a smaller version of the Sage, and I’d like to ask you for your help again. What we have in mind is a simple, three-stay rig, maybe even a cat rig, and possibly a dagger keel with a bulb in order to make it sit lower on the trailer and be beachable. We don’t want purely water ballast because of the performance limitations, but a combo of water and a lead slug on the end of the daggerboard might be worth considering in order to hold down trailering weight. We might be able to squeeze in a couple of low places to sit, by dropping the aft end of the interior down a few inches and for sleeping, fill in with thicker foam cushions. There would be storage under the settees, but not as much as otherwise. I’d also like to hear your comments on the carbon deck like on the 17. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it is one of the secrets of the S 17’s performance, kind of like free horsepower except that it isn’t really free in that it will make the boat cost at least a thousand dollars more. (After that it's free)! In your mind, is it worth the extra money? In the early 70’s Montgomery Marine, in the Montgomery 17 was the first American builder of production boats to use end-grain balsa in the deck. (C&C Yachts, in Canada, was the first, I believe) Now, pretty much all but the cheepie builders use it. I think there’s a good chance that carbon will do the same thing. jerry -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. We are a community of 7 million users fighting spam. SPAMfighter has removed 6308 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len The Professional version does not have this message