Gerry, seems like you should reach out to Burt, who lives in Maine, for an Atlantic sail. Thomas Howe McGrew Real Estate 785-550-1169 -----Original Message----- From: montgomery_boats On Behalf Of Gerry Lempicki via montgomery_boats Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2019 7:50 PM To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Re: M_Boats: Sailing safety The stories you all are telling of hapless sailors are funny...or not, really. But it doesn't surprise me; we've entered an age of instant gratification. People want to go do something but not necessarily put the time into it to learn properly. One thing that really gets me these days is how everyone gets taught to study in order to pass a test, but not really learn the material. Sorry, I'm going on a rant here. LOL My problem is that I over research things; although that's how I ended up with an M17 for our first sailboat, so it can't be all bad. :) We're very happy the way things have turned out this summer; we've gotten a ton of sailing time on our reservoir. Last week was the first time we felt the need to reef, so we put one in before sailing off the mooring. It turned out to be a perfect lesson in how reefing works; we sailed when no one else was, and midday we were able to shake it out and continue on. Now we need to find a ride on the ocean off New England to see what we think about ocean sailing.I have 2 weeks off starting today, so tomorrow we go to finish up the new traveler installation. The traveler is all mounted, but we need to put on the blocks and eye straps used to position it. That will definitely smooth out setting the main.