The North Channel is a fabulous place. We have done two cruises to Buzzards Bay which were great. We have done a two week cruise in Maine which was great. We have done a two week cruise in the Keys which was great. We have done numerous cruises on the Chesapeake and all were good - some rainy some great. The North Channel has to rank with the best of them and definitely will get a repeat some day. 3 M15s Frank Durant in Finally Rick Langer in Bluebird Doug Kelch in Seas the Day 3 M 17s John Edwards in Miss T Michael Bowden in Bonita Todd Mills in Busca Bris and Anne Westlan in the 17 foot Slipper named Raggedy Annie. A great group in fantastic surroundings. It's hard to believe the advantage of cruising in nice clean unlimited fresh water with other small boat enthusiasts. Lessons learned and relearned. M15 sticking centerboards - My CB was stuck in up in the trunk 3 times in the AM and we were not any near being aground. The the second week out I noticed some gravel off of my sandals being washed down the cockpit drain. The cockpit drains into the CB well and with the board up the junk from the cockpit was jambing between the CB and the CB trunk. Must stop doing that. - I was thankful I had drilled a hole for a CB push rod in front of the CB pendant and through the splash guard so I could push the CB down without going swimming. That water is cold. M15 speed record - The strong wind day that Rick mentioned evolved as follows for me. Cleared Turnbull island, raised the sails, took and immediate reef in the Main and kept the working jib up. I put on the life jacket and attached the life jacket harness to the jack lines. I did not use the remote steering as it adds a lag to the steering action which is not a good thing in large waves. I was the last boat to leave the Island and everyone else was well on their way. The only available Marine forcast was for a small craft advisory with 20 kt winds. It was blowing about 18 kts from the WNW on departure, a broad reach all they way to the next anchorage. The waves were running 3 - 4 feet and steering was more effort than it should have been as the bow was digging into the waves and the stern kept trying to pass the bow. I moved my 40 lb inflatable kayak 3 ft aft to the well inside the cabin and moved a 5 gal water jug out to the cockpit to lift the bow up some. It help considerably and steering was well under control. We were cruising along at 5.5 - 6.3 kts on the GPS (no current here) After a couple of miles the wind became lighter, the speed dropped to 3.7 kts and I thought about shaking the reef out. Since we were running down wind I decided not to be tricked by the relative calm while sailing down wind and left the reef in. Then the gust started coming through, faster and faster until the sustained wind was well in excess of 25 kts and the gusts were even stronger. (afterwards heard a radio station reporting 50 k/hr gusts). The wind and waves built so quickly I slide the hatch boards in and locked them down thinking I could hold the boat on course downwind even with the excessive sail area up. The wind became so strong that I feared I would loose jib if it were flogging in that strong a wind and it would be difficult to come up into the wind and hold the boat there long enough to reef as some of the waves were reaching 6 ft. While surfing down a large wave, a strong gust hit and everything on the boat started vibrating like crazy - the rudder, the tiller, the hull, the mast and we were close to broaching but the jib was still up helping push the bow back down wind. I glanced at the GPS and swear I saw 8.9 kts. Raggedy Annie was close by on a converging course and said it looked like 10 kts as I flew down the wave. I was able to hold things together until I was able to head into the lee of an Island where I dropped the jib and put the second reef in the main and headed back out to the maelstrom. I was still overpowered in the gusts but by then the open fetch was less and the waves were more normal. Ahhh it's nice to be alive :-) This would have been a good day for just the storm jib and no main. Is this what San Franciso Bay is all of the time? All is well that ends well. - I just happened to have new standing rigging from Jerry Montgomery and was thankful to have it. My still pictures aren't very good but I hope the 1 1/2 hour of video comes out well. If it does I will make it available to anyone who wants a copy - cruise members get it free, non participants must pay media and shipping costs for the DVD - $1.50 - send an email off list if interested - the video is unedited and is typical home movie stuff - no good shots of sailing in the strong winds as there is too much going on. Thanks Doug Kelch PS - the max speed on the GPS read 23 kts which must be from a toss into the bunk. "bownez@juno.com" <bownez@juno.com> wrote: Rick, Wonderful post, thanks for sharing valuable information. A fact about sailing is that there is always more to learn, and conditions will always be different each time we set sail. I indeed did use my kick-up rudder this trip! It worked very well and the kick release jam cleat functioned exactly like it was to suppose to. I also received your CD, thanks for all your photos. I'll be back to the North Channel as well, without a doubt some of the finest cruising grounds I have ever seen. Later, Bones _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats --------------------------------- Get the Yahoo! toolbar and be alerted to new email wherever you're surfing.