Hello fellow Montgomery boat owners, My name is Doug Vogel, and I am a new owner of an 1980 M-17. It is my first boat. I live in Jackson,Wyoming, and sail my boat on Jackson Lake, in Grand Teton National Park. A amazingly beautiful and tricky place to sail. Lots of challenging mountain (6770') weather to deal with. Like ice still on the lake till probably June this year. Most years, the marina opens on May 21st. What a winter.... I have a few questions. 1) I am trying to repair a few minor gouges in the hull. 1.5 " long and only 1/16 to 1/8" deep. I have a gelcoat repair kit with the color tubes. I sanded the gouges yesterday, and ended up very quickly exposing the green layer underneath my cream colored hull. I was not trying to sand just inside the gouges. So have I screwed up? Now i think I have to apply the gelcoat over both the gouge and the exposed green layer. And that will have to be like a 1/32 or less. Then sand the gelcoat repair very carefully to not get to any green. Is there a better way ? 2) My motor that came with the boat is an 9.7 horse regular shaft Mercury. Too big & too short. A previous owner installed an adjustable motor mount about foot below the notch in the transom. Soooo about $1500 can fix that issue. Maybe later in the summer. 3) I just spent a half hour reading older posts for the first time. I need to do more. I was considering going with slugs as there are some monster gusts on my lake. I will get some Sailcote next week. Do the slugs have to be installed by a sailmaker , or is it possible for an owner to install them ? Thanks all for being happy hardworking sailers , and sending back some advice. Doug