Sean, this group is all for the passing of information. I was the one that started the question and was glad to see the posting, one way or the other. Thanks to Tom for the coordination with Ida Sailor. It has given people like me more info to process when making a purchasing decision. Gilbert -----Original Message----- From: montgomery_boats-bounces+gilbert=mindgame.com@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:montgomery_boats-bounces+gilbert=mindgame.com@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Nebwest2@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2005 11:34 AM To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Subject: M_Boats: Re: montgomery_boats Digest, Vol 34, Issue 5 After reading Joels post Re: the "Ida Sailor Rudder" post that I wrote on here I'd like to offer him an apollogy. If the rudder that fractured on the Santana showed signs of serious grounding, obviously, that probably played some part its failure. I sail regulalry with the guy who broke it and upon relaying the story to me of the failure there was never any mention of this. I was told that the factory told him that the plastic used was not UV stable, that caused the break, and that had been corrected. I was under the impression that he had purchased his blade from Ida Sailor directly. I stand corrected on that. With respect to their warranty. I believe I did mention that Ida Sailor did honor the warranty. Let me add now that only the highest grade could be given to Ida Sailor for that. They honored the warranty, did so promptly, and it doesn't even sound like the warranty had to be honored based on his description of their terms of warranty. Cudos to them for excellent customer service. The comments I made re: performance I'll have to stick with. Although the the owners of the other Santanas seem to be very happy with them and indicate that they feel they are receiving superior perfomance to windward, the results on the water don't seem to be indicating this to me. This is not to say or imply that there is any detrimental effect of the blade. However, I am running the stock blade and consistently am able to point as well or better in formal racing. Sometimes I beat them sometimes they beat me. Obviously, there are hundreds of variables there, rig tuning, sail condition and selection, trim, sailing ability etc any of which could account for a boats ability or inability to point. But nobody (here in Havasu anyways) is walking away from the fleet since changing blades. Thanksgiving weekend we had a big race in 20-30knots of wind. The three Santana's with the Ida Sailor blades were out there and had no problems. I'd say that was a pretty good test of the blades durability and they did fine. Two races I finished ahead of them with my stock blade, two races I was beaten by 1 or 2 of them. If I had to replace my blade due to it getting damaged I would certainly consider an Ida Sailor blade especially after seeing there customer service with respect to the warranty. I just wouldn't purchase one for the sake of increasing the boats performance. They sound like a first class company with a good product. There prices are more than fair. Obvioulsy, the Montgomery Sailors on this site have been very happy with there products. So, please..If my post sounded like an attack on Ida Sailor, let me just say that I was just passing along the facts as I knew them and believed them to be true trying to give an honest evaluation of what I've seen. Again, my appologies to Ida Sailor and Joel for any mis-understanding. Sean _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats