Daniel, You said "Now, one thing I noticed was that with big gusts of 10-12 knots, I had so much less weather helm". Some weather helm adds lift to weather from the rudder. I understand the "ideal" is about 3 - 5 degrees off the centerline for the tiller. My Gaff cutter really handles the wind well and like you said it seems to accelerate and feel good with less weather helm. However when racing it at Havasu last year with other boats around I discovered that the leeway increased substantially and I actually lost ground when beating to windward. The leeway was substantial and I now roll up my outer jib and beat to weather with just the staysail when the winds are getting above 10 -12 kts. On some cruises with other M15, before I converted to the Gaff Cutter, I was also able to point higher and move a little faster than the boats with Genoa's. What do other people think? My impression of the M17 mast head rig is that none of this applies or is this a wives tale as well? Thanks Doug Kelch M15G #310 "Seas the Day" ________________________________ From: Daniel Rich <danielgrich@gmail.com> To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2011 9:22 PM Subject: M_Boats: Sailing with the genoa on my M15 Montypals: I rigged and sailed with my 120 genoa (I think that is the size) for the first time while on vacation recently. It was really interesting. First, because it goes beyond the mast, I rigged the sheets outside the shrouds, inside the lifeline stanchions, and to the fairlead track and cam cleat I have on my cowlings. They are fairly aft. This seems like the right way to rig this. This genoa is made of very light fabric, possibly nylon, and has wonderful brass hanks. They are much nicer than the plastic hanks. I was sailing in a lake that had light, but gusty winds. It took a bit of time to figure out how to sail with it, but I finally was able to tack well with it. The trick was to let the sheets loose when tacking, and let the wind pull the thing well over so it didn't hang up, and then trim it in. Now, one thing I noticed was that with big gusts of 10-12 knots, I had so much less weather helm, and much more control. More head sail would naturally reduce weather helm, but I figured it would just increase heeling. The Monty heels so nicely, that more sail forward actually seems to help! Any thoughts on this? I will have some video of the genoa, and of my new TillerClutch posted soon. Daniel M15 #208 Kestrel _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats When posting, remember that there is no privacy on the Internet!