Wind was forecasted for yesterday. Midway through the afternoon we had a nap under slatting sails. It didn't much look like wind up to that point. A bit of a yawn for sure. Nothing like being slapped awake with a wall of wind. This area has what I lovingly refer to as Ninja winds. They seem to come down out of the hills from a quadrant you were least expecting. In this case we were only a few hundred yards of the west shore when a west wind nailed us. Man. We were way over powered right out of the box...even hove to we were taking a lickin. I got two reefs in the main and still had the inter up and thought to try that. Wow, no chance. Just the intermediate....still too much. Then I took that down and just bumbled down hill with bare poles for a while. Take a breather. I can tell you that in the same conditions with a furled 150 I did around 3.5- 4 knots easy....now without the furler and sail we did 2 to2.5. I like the slower version. ~:0) After 20 minutes of bare poles and some calming of nerves, I wanted to try what I had loaded as my 'storm sail'. Kind of a joke really. I have not had time to make a proper one so I have been carrying a jib off a Thistle. It is basically new, has about half or two thirds the luff length of a stock jib and about the same foot length. Much less sail than a stock M17 jib anyway. It was about right. By the time the Thistle jib was up (with no main at all....we would have been too powered up) we were running out of lake. I was pleasantly surprised to see we were able to move at 2 to 4.5 knots at a close reach pretty easy....and if patient, could tack the sail over as well. Once we settled in with this configuration I figured this would be the best survival balance...unless I eventually made a storm tri'sl. I have never used one but I know it would have been perfect in these conditions. The boat would have been balance and tacking would have been faster and easier. The sun was out and it was a beautiful warm wind. We decided to sail it out and see if it went away with the setting sun. Nope, it actually got much stronger. I will mention that earlier on there were about about five sailboats out. They all disappeared or dropped all sail and motored once the wicked winds hit. Personally, I feel that most sailboats stop sailing in big wind (at least where I sail) because they don't have a selection smaller sails or even reef points in their mains. I am not sure, but I believe most of the 'racers' simple don't want reef points on their sails and will sail only up to the point that they can no long handle the boat. After that, take it all down and start the motor. These people are missing out on some of the best sailing....IMHO. There is nothing like that roller coaster ride to windward in a big ass wind. With just the Thistle jib we were able to gain a few miles uphill, then jibe around and slide home. Man, such fun in big wind and big waves. In the troughs of some the water was level with my face. We surfed down a few at well over 6 knots. I will have to check the gps for max speed last night. I forgot to last night after buttoning up the boat. The down side to these conditions is getting the boat on the trailer. With a 25 knot breeze on your aft quarter while at the lee side of the dock. When moving the boat down dock toward the trailer, the strain on the stern line was so great Daphne had to put all her might in to just hold on. In the end, some folks drinking in the dockside pub (inside) saw the pickle we were in and wandered over to lend a hand. Good stuff. What a fun day sailing. That's my story and I am sticking to it. Tim D M17 #369 Kelowna BC Okanagan Lake.