Hi, Danelle Landis here, I've been enjoying learning from the archives - and I have a *lot* to learn! I just bought an M17 here in Ketchikan, Alaska that of course, needs a lot of attention. It is pretty sound mostly, but needs what looks to be the typical repairs and rehabs that the older (I think it must be between 1981 and 1987). It's got the notorious rusted/stuck CB, and the boat has been sitting in saltwater, uncovered, in a marina for the last year and a half, probably longer. We need to haul it asap, but it came with no trailer. We'll probably have to buy one and have it barged up from Seattle. The sails are in great condition - even a spinnaker! Poor thing hasn't been really valued highly - she has no name, and I just realized today that the beat up old tiller is actually an old axe handle, among other pending projects. I started sailing with my family when I was about 7, on a Blanchard 26 on Coeur d'Alene lake in ID. My dad totally caught the bug and decided he wanted to retire at age 30, and move onto a sailboat. We did it, on the Islander 30 we had by that time, all five of us - us kids were 4, 10 and 14. We launched the boat at Lewiston, ID and sailed through the locks and dams in the Snake, Columbia rivers, the up the WA coast to Seattle where my parents promptly bought a Cal Cruising 36. It seemed HUGE. Eventually, we bought a 50' custom wierdly-designed aluminum hard-chined gaff-rigged sailboat we lived on for the next five years, and sailed up here to Alaska - our first dream destination. From there, the family all moved off and my dad kept on sailing, living aboard in Mexico, Hawaii, Sitka...for another fifteen years. He and I sailed the aluminum boat (since rehabbed into a regular sloop) from Hawaii to Seattle in 1988. Anyway, I've missed sailing all these years, and when this little M17 became available for only $2,500, I had to snap it up! I've never sailed on such a small boat before, but from what I've read so far, they sound capable of taking hard weather (we have plenty here), but are fun to sail too. The sailing part is second nature to me, the repairs - well, I'll need a lot of advice and help from my husband, who is great at those things, fortunately. I want to do most of it myself though. Having my own sailboat has been a dream of mine since I was a teenager pouring over "Sailpower" on my cozy bunk. My other hobbies - I'm a stay at home mom of three, and I have been a K9 Search and Rescue handler for twelve years. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping