The admiral and I took out our new (2006)
for a weekend excursion. We just got her a little over a week ago and after a couple of successful launches and motoring around our bay, we decided to venture out and do some extended exploring. When we got her, all the rigging was stowed in the cabin for transport, so we had to figure out where everything went, which wasn't very quick or easy as nothing was labeled, but we eventually got things right. It didn't appear that the previous owner had done much sailing on her as the ropes and sails were like new. By the time we loaded everything on board and got all the rigging set up and ready to launch it was already dinner time. The wind in among the islands was pretty inconsistent and generally light, so we didn't get any sailing in the first day, just motored around and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, ending up tied to a dock at a friend's cove nearby. Our friend is a former
owner, who initially got us hooked on the idea of a Mac. When we arrived at his cove, he was really helpful in helping us get the rigging set up optimally and showing us how to manage the lines.On Saturday, we motored over to Poets Cove on South Pender Island to check out the resort there. It was a bit too pretentious (it didn't seem like we would fit in unless our boat was about 30 ft longer) and busy for us, so we cruised to the N end of Bedwell Harbour where North and South Pender Islands meet and dropped anchor. I had never set an anchor before, so I was a bit nervous, but everything went smoothly, although I couldn't sleep well because I was worried that we might be drifting in the middle of the night and I'm still not used to the noises and rocking. The Admiral, as is usual, was instantly asleep after lights out and slept soundly until morning. She didn't even wake up while I went up top a couple of times to check that our anchor was holding. I don't have much to compare to, but it was a nice sheltered anchorage with a sandy bottom and not too busy. There's a little beach there and hiking trails. We took our tender to shore and had a picnic on the beach.
The tender I bought just before heading out was a mistake. It's an inflatable dinghy that looks pretty solid and would be a fine vessel for a calm lake or river, but really isn't meant to be towed on the ocean. I found that if I went over 6 knots it would start to collect water, effectively turning it into a big sea anchor, which we had to haul in and empty. I later learned that I could have tied a rope underneath it to lift the nose up more so that it wouldn't collect water...much to learn...
On Sunday morning, when we were leaving the Harbour we noticed a sailboat speeding towards us at great speed, throwing off a lot of spray from her bow and we wondered what the heck kind of boat it might be as we hadn't seen anything else like it until that point. Sure enough, it was another Mac! I didn't catch the name of the boat but I think it was flying an American flag. We waved as it passed, but it seemed to be in a hurry so we didn't try to chat. It will be nice to talk to some other Mac owners some day soon.
Sunday, we decided, would be the day to try our hands at some real sailing. We went around the south of Pender and headed up the east coast. The wind was coming from the SE at around 8 knots. We sailed wing on wing for about 40 minutes at speeds too slow to register on my iphone before the wind died on us. One thing I learned is that you can hardly see anything in front of you wing on wing with a 150% genoa! We then motored up to the tip of North Pender where we saw plenty of sailboats catching some good wind and ripping along. It was a bit intimidating judging by the way that some boats were heeling over, but we decided to give it a try. The wind was shifted and coming from the SW on that side of the island. Things went well for a little while, but we were heeling over a bit too much as we were heading into the wind, and not having had much sailing experience, we had to let loose the sails a couple of times when things got a bit hairy for us. We had a bit of an embarrassing moment after we'd let the sails out and noticed that a BC ferry had rounded a corner and was speeding straight at us. We were able to bring the sails down and fire up the motor in plenty of time to get out of the way, but I'm sure we looked a bit silly out there as the other sailors were able to keep their boats sailing nicely in the channel without getting themselves run over by any ferries.
We tried sailing a few more times and were happy to see another Mac sailing on another tack, but the wind died down by mid afternoon and we wanted to get home in plenty of time to get back to the launch and trailer home, so we motored the rest of the way back to our bay. Aside from a few mishaps, like spilling our cooler when heeled over, and snapping the motor oil cover off the motor when raising it, nothing serious went wrong. All in all, it was a fun little adventure and we learned a lot about our boat, but we also learned that there a lot of things we could do better, so I have a bunch of questions that I'm hoping other Mac owners can help us out with:
- What kind of system do you have for storing things in the cabin? We found that we were constantly moving things from one pile to another because the thing we wanted was inevitably at the bottom of the container underneath the biggest pile. Yes, we did pack too much, thinking we'd rather have more food and stuff, rather than be left wanting, but in hind sight, better planning and less stuff would seem to be the better route. The storage areas are rather difficult to access as it involves moving cushions, sliding galleys out of the way and lifting storage lids. What's your system? What goes in which storage area? Do you have additional storage? Hanging cupboards or shelves?
- A related question: How do you load/unload? I found it was easiest to set up a ladder off the side of the boat when on the trailer rather than boarding from the transom area. We left the cushions and covers in before loading, which we found to be a royal pain because we were constantly moving them out of the way to get at the storage.
- Recommended coolers? How many coolers for a 3 day trip? (I like my beer cold)
- What kind of tender do you have and do you tow it or keep it on board?
- Recommended locations for installing 12V receptacles?
- Where do you store the mast raising system?
- Do you ever take out your Mac without the mast?
- Any other advice?
locker (tub removed)
