[SailingCowboy]

It’s awesome to see a fellow Venture 17 owner!

I purchased mine around a year and a half ago from a gentleman from Lake Havasu, AZ. I’m currently in central CA, and planning on sailing mine on Lake Isabella and possibly San Diego Bay. I’ve additionally been researching sailing her to Catalina Island from Long Beach.

I was rather surprised by her decent build quality, being aware of the stigma surrounding the brand. Simple, decently balanced, and she seemed able to handle the winds of Lake Havasu fairly well when the previous owner and I took her on a test sail. Despite some deteriorated rubber gasket leaks, which have since been replaced, she handled it well.

Since my purchase, I’ve since had West Marine replace the standing rigging with cable around double the diameter of the original. She’s still running the original sails, which I plan to use for the time being. The trailer is a little worse for wear, but manageable. Unfortunately she’s long been missing the hatch, according to the previous owner, so I’ll have to construct a new one eventually.

Do you have any advice or knowledge worth sharing from the years owning yours? I’ve been hard pressed to find much information on the Venture 17 other than the data from this website, and even less from owners of them.

Thanks!

[Author]

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