Just came in the door from a series race on Jason's M-17. Oh Boy! First time any of the locals have seen an M-17 really strut her stuff! Race comittee reported peak gusts of 34knots, yes knots, with sustained in the 28 region. One Catalina 25 backed out at the start as did 1 Santana 23. Another Santana 23 ended up not ready in time. That left us on Jason's M-17, a Catalina 25, and a Holder 20. We smoked the 25 by over 4 minutes , scratch!. The holder did beat us by about 6 minutes scratch, around 2 corrected. Then, the race comittee chase boat announced that the last boat to go around the leward mark (us) had to sail an additional 300 yards than the first boat (holder) because the mark was blowing downwind! Taking that into consideration we were probably right there in the hunt for a bullet. I think the ol' Monty caused a few jaws to drop! The Holder guys said they were hanging on by a thread , white knuckling it the whole way. The Catalina 25 rounded up with the jib poled out and ripped the track right out of the mast! Meanwhile , we were having so much fun we were just smiles and laughs the whole way, bashing into 3 foot waves all the way back. I will give you this though, the guys on the 25 were a lot drier than we were! The cockpit looked like a bathtub at one point, a bath tub that was 1/3 full. It was probably the most fun sailing I've done in years. At one point, one of the Santana guys was on the radio yelling "go fishboats!" (fishboats being what the local go fast guys have nicknamed the lapstrake hulled Montys). We had a camera but never had a chance to use it. There were a lot of pics being taken off the comittee boat. I hope to get some, if so I'll post. Jason finally got the high wind conditi ons he likes on a race day. We had her to a respectable 6.9 at one time reaching downwind with the swell but never were able to break the big 7. What an outstanding boat! Neither of us, although working our butts off on the tiller and the main to keep her from rounding, ever felt out of control and we were disapointed when any further races for the day were called off. OH well, everyone makes it home in time fo the Superbowl that way. Sure is nice to drop the sander, put down the resin, and remember why we're going through all this work on the 23. Sean