David, Those mountain winds do pack a punch. I was a member of the "Why Buy" boat club at Chatfield and Cherry Creek for two seasons but only sailed on Monday and Tuesday evenings. There was a nice M17 with a green boot stripe on Cherry Creek but I never saw a Montgomery on Chatfield. I think you have the heaving too down pretty well. I sail an M15 and the sail configuration is different, much smaller jib relative to the main but under very high winds I would drop the 85% jib and heave too under the double reefed main as well. Thanks Doug Kelch, M15G #310, "Seas the Day" --- On Tue, 7/14/09, David C. Patterson <davidcpatterson@msn.com> wrote: From: David C. Patterson <davidcpatterson@msn.com> Subject: M_Boats: Heaving to To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Date: Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 11:25 AM I have been enjoying the discussion about sail choice. It helps me think through my situation sailing on a reservoir (Chatfield) near Denver. When storm cells roll over the mountains some of the best winds for sailing occur, and coincidentally most of the power boats run for cover. But to take advantage of those great times means being out for the heaviest winds, at times at 30+mph. After the main force of the cell diminishes there is another period of exciting sailing, of course. At the height of the winds I will heave to for 20 or 30 minutes (sometimes longer if I have misjudged the event), watch the scene, or even make a cup of tea on the old SeaCook stove that came with my 17 (1985 #393). At first-and I am only a few of seasons in to sailing-my heaving to was out of the necessity of poor planning and poor weather watching. Now I have really come to trust the boat's abilities. Lately I have been heaving to under reefed main alone, to limit how much forereaching I have to deal with on my restricted sailing ground. The first time I did it was to be able to change sheets easily on the jib after reefing it. Pretty hard to do if the backed sail is still up, as you all know. I was amazed at how well she held position and how stable she was in Force 6 and even briefly Force 7 winds, hove to under reefed main alone. Anyway, I would love to have input from some of you more experienced sailors about sail choices when you are heaving to on your M17s. I don't use my 85% jib; I use my 100% working jib because it is reefable and I can rig a separate downhaul for the reef, and another for the whole sail. With the jib reefed and a second reef in the main, Cloud Girl remains stable and nimble for sailing in pretty significant wind, as well. And by the way, she is remarkably dry when the spray is flying. Thanks, David _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!