Mike, My guess is that having the board up loses you a good ten degrees. And, I found while sailing with John Edwards how important it is to load the (big) rudder up too with some weather helm. That said, I doubt a 17 could do as well as a good deep fin keeler like a J24 no matter what. Tod -----Original Message----- From: montgomery_boats-bounces+htmills=bright.net@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:montgomery_boats-bounces+htmills=bright.net@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of MC Sent: Friday, March 26, 2004 7:05 PM To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats Subject: M_Boats: For the fun of racing fast fans on the list point vs. speed. and is 40 degrees really possible This afternoon I watched from the shore line two small sailboats racing each other. (outside Tampa Bay) One was a Monty 17 (looked like a reddish or dark orange stripe, bright sun ! ) the other looked like a Hunter 22. both had about the and speed but the Hunter was constantly able to point higher, But why should that be. Not being able to talk to the skippers I do not know if the board was down completely. But just how much difference would the board all the way down make, would it improve the pointing by ? % or ?degrees. _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats