My brother Carl, an experienced Hobie sailer, was in town from the Northwest this past weekend. I've been wanting to test the limits of my 170 all Summer but lacked a willing crew. Until now. With air temps in the mid 40's, wind steady at 11-14 mph, water temp at 50 or so, our 2 other brothers spotting from my 13' Whaler, wetsuits donned and the 170 completely stripped, we set sail this past Sunday morning. I secured a fender to the top of the mast for floataion as shown in attached pic (turtle testing will have to wait for another day!) Most of the time was spent reaching with the boat severely heeled. I've read of and know first hand-by surprise-of the tendency of monohulls to round up. This truely is the case. while making good headway, no matter what we did-even with water pouring into the boat over the rail we could not get her to go over. Trying to maintain course and prevent rounding up via the tiller was completely ineffective. The hull does what it wants to do and heads into the wind. Our non-sailing spotters said there were times when about a foot of centerboard was visible before the boat would suddenly turn. What we did find out and is critical to staying upright is hull speed. Read on. We started out full Main & Jib then rolled Jib then reefed Main. We found for the winds we had, the way to go was reefed Main alone for the best control. The boat became more nimble. I decided we needed a little break and wanted to tidy up the reef so Carl headed us up and feathered the tiller to keep the boom where I could work. I was on the leeward side when a moderate gust came along. The Mainsheet was cleated. Our headway was minimal. You know what happened...over we went! Not a hard knockdown but oh so very graceful. After simultanious 'OK's, I turned to see the mast float I rigged was working. Perfect. Proceded to uncleat the Mainsheet (jib was already furled) and swam around to the centerboard. Carl had backed away from the boat a little too far. He couldn't catch up as the wind took the boat and me downwind. Our Spotters were on the way to his rescue so I figured I'd right the boat & hop in. With just a light pull on the end of the centerboard she popped up surprisingly easy (note I had the blue bungee in place to prevent a slam..the board stayed fully extended). At this point, another valuable lesson. After righting, I had all I could do to just hold on. The wind took the boat quickly & forcefully. I could not pull her around. The upright hull just laid sideways to the wind and the wind had it's way. The lesson? Do not right her without having the bow line in your hand. I could have pulled her bow into the wind with the 20' I keep cleated at the bow, slowing her down and maintaining control had I been thinking. If not for the Spotters, we'd have been in real trouble. They picked Carl up and pulled close upwind so he could jump aboard. I just helplessly hung on to the stern and dragged along. After pulling me in we took a moment to catch our breath, trimmed the main and sailed close hauled back to the launch. So the lessons: 1. The most delicate and dangerous time is when you're still or nearly so...stay out of Irons! 2. Practice Tacking & Jibing for smooth transitions with minimal loss of speed 3. If you go over in strong winds, don't right the boat without the bowline in hand. 4. Use the Blue Bungee! A huge help and protects from a damaging slam. I was impressed the rigging withstood the pressure. Nothing came undone or broke. I suppose the boat is made to take it to a certain extent but to see the force firsthand is really something. Experimenting when we could plan and make preparations made the Mission fun, although there were a few unplanned yet very memorable moments. Have to say we had a ball & if you're game, would highly recommend it!