Loved my M-17 from the first day I saw her, but now have additional reason to give kudos to the designers. Lynne L has been racing weekly in the Daingerfield Island Sailing Club's Tuesday night PHRF handicap series on the Potomac River, and in spite of being by far the smallest boat in the fleet, with a rusty skipper, only a #2 furling genoa, and leaky slugs, she's holding her own (though far from winning as yet), against 20 ft+ LWL boats. Lotsa fun, since the relative advantage changes with wind strength and point of sail. Starting from not quite dead last in the first races in April, we made it to the top half (just barely, 8/17) of the fleet last week on corrected time. As others have said, with its LWL, weight, and sail area, the M-17 has no business going as fast as it does, but it does! Fantastic boat! Now, if I just had a #1 genoa, or perhaps a Jerry M. for a skipper ... who knows? Rick M-17 #633 Lynne L ************** Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for fuel-efficient used cars. (http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007)