Jake,

I know I've got a glich somewhere, cause a couple other guys told me they pop there 18s up by themselves also. I agree with you about boat weight. I'd think a 17 with a carbon mast would be lighter than an 18. But the factory won't say exactly how much their F17s weigh. Others claim the boat is 300 lbs. and then some.

I have done as you suggest and tipped the boat over a hundred feet from shore where I could still wade. Couldn't get it up to save my life. Neither could some of the other guys, who are heavier. I'm thinking the wind was maybe 5 mph or less and possibly to soft to assist. So maybe that's why we couldn't do it during our practice And it's pretty unlikely I'd go over in wind under, maybe 10 mph or so. I've only been over on the 17 twice, both during gybes in high wind and 2 foot waves. I couldn't change the direction of the boat relative to the wind, either by positioning my weight on the end of a hull or by trying to swim the mast tip . The mast was headed dead into the wind and I just wasn't strong enough to fight the wind on either occassion. Like I said it makes me hold back when the wind starts going much past 10, because it's such a hassle waiting for a good hearted boater to come to the rescue. It screws up my learning curve, that's for sure.

Eighteeners are able to push it as hard as they want because they always have enough crew weight to get back up, if their judgement is faulty. That's how I want to sail. But I'm in Minnesota and we don't have much of a racing community here, at least by solo sailers, so there is a dearth of uni experience here. I'm going sailing this afternoon and it's supposed to be blowing pretty steady at 7 to 10 mph. I'll dump it out in the middle of the lake and we'll see what happens.

Adios,
Daniel