Afternoon Dave, Thanks for your response. I understand, if you see a lot of anything on the market it's probably because folks don't like them that much. But we need to physically see one before we make any decisions to buy one. That's why we're researching owners' in the hopes of finding some one within 150 or so of us(Mentone Alabama) that would allow us to take a look. Thanks for your time....John ----- Original Message ----- From: "W David Scobie" <wdscobie@yahoo.com> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2008 1:57 PM Subject: Re: M_Boats: Montgomery 17 john & joy: i'm a M15 owner (wishing to 'move up' to the 17). sleeping - the forward v-berth is the location. the compression post does 'split' the berth. the 1/4 berths are good for seating, not adult sleeping. seating - one can sit in the 17 no problem (unless you are long in body and over 6'4"). one cannot stand when in the cabin. overnighting - if you work well together one can do multiple weeks/months in the 17 ... but my perspective is from the M15 and tent-camping. the Mboats can carry more stuff than you can really need ... under the berths, the stern end of the quarterberths and cockpit locters. potty: under the v-berth, starboard side of the compression post. steel centerboard & ballast - only the older boats the the steel. the new boats are lead. the current model M15 & M17 use the same centerboard. see SCRED's www-site for a page about the steel centerboard/ballast and the M17 (link below). you are correct that there are not many used M17s available ... there is a reason for this. they are GREAT boats! dave scobie M15 #288 - SCRED visit Scred's www-site: http://www.freewebs.com/m15-named-scred --- On Sat, 11/15/08, John Merrell <mayrel@hughes.net> wrote: Greetings, We're researching various trailerable "pocket cruisers" such as the Montgomery 17, ComPac Sun Cat, Precision 18 and Catalina 18 MK II. Since Montgomery sells direct to the public from California, it's difficult to view on of these fine boats. With that said, we're soon to be retired and want to do some "trailer sailing" to enhance our retirement activities. Having owned a Skipper 20 and a Morgan OutIsland 30, we have some sailing experience. We've emailed Montgomery with some questions, but we'd prefer to obtain information from M17 owners. One of our first questions is does the cabin have sufficient room for two adults to spend 3 to 4 nights on the hook? How much sitting headroom is there, especially where the head is located? How long and wide are the berths? Without opening ports, is there enough ventalation, or would dorades be a good idea? What about the steel centerboard; is maintenance difficult and what all is required to keep it working properly? We realize we're asking a lot of questions, but Montgomery's are expensive new and there doesn't seem to be many pre-owned M17's on the market. Again, it's difficult to find one to even look over. So we are hoping we can find some help through this avenue. Early thanks for any help you can provide. Sincerely, John and Joy _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats