I think you are on to something there. Furthermore, it turns out I do have a tiller extension sitting in the extra hardware that I got from Bob Becker when I bought the boat. He had replaced the tiller with a longer tiller, and the blade too. I went back to the old blade, but kept the longer tiller. Low and behold, there is a 26 inch extension from Forespar sitting on the old tiller. So, I just took it off and will put it on the new tiller. Looks like I gotta drill a 9/16 inch hole to fit it. Very nice quick release on it too. Regarding sails, I may want to give my local sail guy John Amen a crack at making them, although it is very tempting to contact Dr. Judy B about it. Daniel On Aug 18, 2013, at 2:42 PM, Karen and Smiley <magoo252@comcast.net> wrote:
When I bought M 15 #616 from Stan he had blown out the full set of sails and I knew better and ordered from the knowledgeable Dr Judy B some custom Hyde sails. Specifically I asked for a sail range of 15-20 knots and I knew she would cut them FLAT baby because we like to point in a blow. Had the wife out in 18 gusting to +20 last season and YES we had a tiller extension and yes we sat forward to the cabin and she was between my legs all of us FORWARD. The boat powered up and blew through the Chesapeake Bay chop just like Jerry designed her to do. FLAT sails and moving your weight forward and If I had a trapeze wire I would have been out on it. Full Main and Jib when everybody around us was reefed. I knew that day that this boat was right for us.
Now to the question of swapping out to a storm jib (I have one of those on board too) I would never feel comfortable going on the fore deck and swapping it out, Hey Sal and Jerry you hearing me on this one J I could have tucked away somewhere on a beach and done it but was I was never over powered. A FLAT main and jib will do this for you. Good luck Daniel with new sails cause that is the solution, use your blown out ones on drifters J
Smiley M 15 #616
Smiley and Karen
magoo252@comcast.net