The lake where I sail has an active sailing club....boats of all kinds and sizes, but my M17 is one of the smaller ones. We had a group event a few years ago and someone with a Compac 16 showed up as a guest. We did a group sail to a destination about 10 miles off. To keep the fleet together, they sent the two of us smaller boats off first. I led the fleet the whole way, the bigger 30 footers finally caught up with me in the open water near the end of the run. The entire fleet passed him, later to send somebody back to tow him up to where I was (by motor), where the entire fleet passed him again. He eventually made it. Don't know if it was the boat or the skipper, but it wasn't a good showing. As for rigging the boat, I'm slow.....errrr....deliberate, and it seldom takes me more than an hour to rig and launch from the time I hit the lot with the mast down. Single handed. Raising and lowering the mast is the single biggest job, and there are tricks to help with that. I've never owned an M15, but have been on a couple. They are a sailing dream. Easy to tack, point well and are very fast. For only 2 feet difference in length, the size difference is remarkable. If you hop off one onto the other, you certainly notice it. Not better or worse, just different. Howard On Jun 4, 2008, at 2:22 PM, Andrei Caldararu wrote:
Hi Chad,
thanks for the comments. The people selling the M-17 are not the owners -- the owner passed away and they are his children selling the boat. I'll ask them to check that the centerboard moves freely, although as the boat is now on a trailer this may be difficult. The boat seems to have been stored in a dry area though, with a cover on it.
I get it that you had a CP-16 before the M-17. How would you compare the two boats? Was the M-17 the fantastic improvement everyone seems to be saying it is? Especially, how do you compare the build quality of the two? Mine is a 1985 CP-16 Mark 1 (no centerboard, no bowsprit), but it is in great condition, you couldn't tell this is a 23 years old boat; other boats I've looked at (Precisions in particular) all had their share of gelcoat cracking, repairs, etc., while the Compac is like new. Is this the same experience you had with the M-17? The price difference between the CP-16 and the M-17 is quite a bit, the M-17 is almost double the CP-16.
When you say a better system for raising the mast, do you mean a crutch at the front with pulleys, or a similar system? With this, how long does it take you to rig?
Thanks,
Andrei.
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