Kendall, I think the positive floatation capability of the M15 is a great thing! A feature I wouldn't want to give up. My opinion is the removal of 1 cubic feet of Styrofoam from under the vberth is a fair trade-off for moving the weight of your anchor, chain, and rode, forward and low in the hull. Overall in the big scheme of things I wouldn't guess the minus 1 cubic feet of floatation would be significant in the 15's ability to stay afloat if full of water. But I could be wrong. One of the challenges with our M15 was keeping the boat sailing flat on her waterline. I'm a "full-size" guy and was continually trying to find ways to move weight forward. I'm conscience of the same with our M17, with the added weight of a 4 cycle hanging off the transome, and with the fuel and anchor, etc. in the stern locker. But not nearly as difficult to keep the 17 on her waterline as was our 15. Randy Graves, M17 #410 ________________________________________ From: montgomery_boats-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [montgomery_boats-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of kdocter@bellsouth.net [kdocter@bellsouth.net] Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2008 2:08 PM To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Subject: M_Boats: question from Kendall Has anyone got a war story about turning turtle on a 15? James, you mentioned an airbag. When I was diving many years ago, we had a small inflatable rubber thing. It used a co2 cartridge and it would inflate on demand and blow up the rubber "balloon" to the eqivilent of 80# of lift. About the size of a big beach ball. It had a lanyard on it to secure it to whatever you were trying to lift. I wonder if you ever "turtled" if something like that might pull the mast up to the waterline again. Randy, Thanks for your comment. It almost sounds to me like I'd be better off with less flotation rather than more. True? Kendall in NW Louisiana M-15 #164 _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats

i remember a story from a north-east M15 sailer on this list last year. he said he was unable to get the main loose in a gust (one of the push down to release main sheet setups) and caught water over the lee side into the cockpit. the boat didn't 'go over'. when the main sheet was released the boat 'popped up' like she should. i believe the only 'damage' was some H20 in the low side cockpit locker. the H20 in the cockpit drained as designed through the centerboard line's hole. dave scobie M15 #288, not yet named kdocter@bellsouth.net wrote: Has anyone got a war story about turning turtle on a 15? James, you mentioned an airbag. When I was diving many years ago, we had a small inflatable rubber thing. It used a co2 cartridge and it would inflate on demand and blow up the rubber "balloon" to the eqivilent of 80# of lift. About the size of a big beach ball. It had a lanyard on it to secure it to whatever you were trying to lift. I wonder if you ever "turtled" if something like that might pull the mast up to the waterline again. Randy, Thanks for your comment. It almost sounds to me like I'd be better off with less flotation rather than more. True? Kendall in NW Louisiana M-15 #164 --------------------------------- Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.