Thanks guys for your replys, I live in a village called Withnell in rural Lancashire which is just an hour away from the English Lake District. Sailing on Windermere is gorgeous but you can put more tacks in on a Sunday afternoon than you do on a circumnavigation and the winds are something else, you can be on a run and the guy 2 boat lenghts away has been turned around and is close hauled. I will be taking the Eun Mara on the sea and racing in the winter series on Lake Windermere.... should be giving some plastic fantastics a run for their money!!!