Tom,

Did you push the tiller to leeward after the bow came through the wind? Once the bow comes through the wind, the tiller (which you pushed to leeward in order to initiate the maneuver) will be on the new windward side and she’ll just keep sailing. You may also need to ease the main some. Keep experimenting until you find what works. Our M17 will heave to nicely in winds up to 25 knots (haven’t had the opportunity to try it above that speed).

Mark Dvorscak

M17 #400 Grace

and an as yet unnamed M23

-----Original Message-----
From: montgomery_boats-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:montgomery_boats-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Rotortom2@aol.com
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 6:33 PM
To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com
Subject: Re: M_Boats: ballast

When we bought our M-17 "Wild Hare" a few years ago, we were off the coast of Ventura in 5' to 8' swells and about 10 Knots of wind and decided to practice "heaving to". We tacked into the wind, left the jib where it was,before tacking, and then expected to round up into the wind, lose way, and because of the backwinded jib, fall off and make way again, at which point the rudder would again become effective and cause the boat to once more round up, etc, etc.
The only problem we had was that the boat would not lose way before we went through the wind and then would would be sailing again on the opposite tack. What were we doing wrong? I figured the boat just wanted to keep sailing and did it's own thing.
Tom
M-17 "Wild Hare"