Hi David, As with all sailing questions, ...... that depends.
It depends on your sailing area; on your and your friends sailing experience and confidence in what kind of weather you can face. Under Sunday afternoon, 10 knot breeze, good weather forecast, no sudden squalls or fronts roaring through, two adult couples in an M15 cockpit is fine, and would be fun. The M15 stern squats a bit in the water with four adults in the cockpit, but you can have an enjoyable time. The situation changes though, if the weather deteriorates; the wind strength increases, you, and your friends are relatively inexperienced sailors, and home port is still far away. Now you are going to have to reef the main; maybe change the head sail to a working jib, close the companionway hatch and put in the hatch boards. Then four adults in the cockpit become two too many for easy boat handling. ....so the, ".....that depends" is a function of your sailing experience, your boat handling experience in deteriorating weather conditions; how far away is a safe port, or your home port; is the weather phenomena a short term situation - a local summer thunderstorm that blows by in half an hour - or is it a Nor'easter slowly settling in for three days; can you anchor somewhere in a good lee; ..... ? You alone can answer these questions. Connie _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
