Moving On In The Spring

[GaryMayo]

I am having a really good time with my old friend, sailing. I discovered it in 1983 as newlywed and sailed about three years. The sale of the two 12 foot boats was my downpayment on a house. Figured I would get back into it someday. Well that took years finding my way back.

As you know, I have a Mac 25. Almost had a Mac X but my local dealer likes Nebraska football more than be likes working Saturdays in the fall. Missing him two Saturdays in a row made me take pause and really think about what it was I wanted and what it was I was doing. I sold off some old toys to raise the cash to. It the X. So what was a boy to do with toy money in his pocket and no salesman around at the sailboat store? I got on Craig's list and purchased a super nice 150 hp ski boat. Lol

I still had skads of change left and that kept me looking at sailboats. Figured if there were good trailer sailboats in the 26 foot range, how big could I go? The answer is not much bigger but a little bigger.

Today I made a deal on a clipper Marine 30 on a galvanized trailer for pocket change. I have in it what I have in my Mac and that is not much. It is snow bound in Canada and I pick it up sometime in the spring. Pretty clean old boat. 8 foot beam and 6 foot ceiling in the cabin. These old boats had a sail drive compartment engine room. You do not see or smell an engine in the cockpit or below. Pretty cool idea. Has a 15 hp engine with helm controls. Comes with 4 sails and everything is reported to be in good condition except the 13 year old trailer tires. It was used as a sailboat charter on the great lakes. Comes with ships log.

I wish to thank everyone here for getting me back on the water again. I know many of you worked overtime. Lol

I especially wish to thank Tony for tuning the boat, repairing rigging and the great sailing lessons. We must do it again.

I made friends here and I NEVER forget people that get in my space and lend a hand. Thank you all do much

I will be around, but because I adopted a new boat, I also need to be adopting a new forum family that has the same boat that I have.

If you think you get grief from other sailors boating on macs, try adopting a defunct boat that the designer stole the money in the middle of the night and fled the country. Lol

I will check in now and again at least till I sell the Mac 25

See ya

[Catigale]

I love the eclectic mix of people who come to this board ...ranging from the pseudo normal to the downright fascinating. Thanks for sharing your dreams and ideas but don't forget to check in on occasion.

And do send us a picture of the Clipper hasp when you gt a chance....lubricated with...

Drum roll...

[Fxwg80hd]

In good condition the Clipper Marine 30 is a nice looking boat, but at 7,000 pounds plus 2,000 pound trailer, it is not towable by must vehicles. Looks like it will need about 5 feet of water depth to launch off trailer, so it's a good thing you got a slip. The clipper does look like a nice boat to weekend on.

I assume you'll take the 25 when you want to trailer somewhere to sail.

[abruzzi]

This is the guy whose tow vehicle is a semi, I think he can handle 10000lbs. Trailer launching on the other hand will be a bitch. I was between two different boats, the Mac 25 and a Kittiwake 23. I got the Mac solely because of the trailer launching compared to a full keel boat, though that Kitti was a pretty boat.

Geof

[Fxwg80hd]

Yep, launching looks like a pain. Looking real close it almost looks like an anchor line off the stern to help pull it off the trailer.


Might have upgrade the Hasp:

[abruzzi]

My problem is that I'll be solo 95% of the the time, so if I can't step, rig, and lauch solo, it ain't happening. Now in a few years, I may decide to invest for a slip, but until then, the more trailerable, the better.

I'd guess that stern line is probably jut to pull it to the dock, since it will be a ways out once it starts to float.

EDIT: found the picture of the Kitti that cemented my launching concern:



Geof

[Sumner]

One concern is how far you have to back down into the water to launch and retrieve the boat and the other major one is if the ramp is long enough for you to do that. I think that we have only launched one place where the ramp was very long before dropping off the end of it.

Gary it sounds like the 'football' dealer maybe saved you from making the wrong decision, so maybe send him a Christmas card . We bought our boat unseen after doing a lot of research, but did have a friend that had his captain's license look at it for us. We haven't regretted it once and wouldn't buy a different trailerable boat if we had to do it all over again. Hope you have the same experience,

Sum

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Our MacGregor S Pages

Mac-Venture Links

[GaryMayo]

The keel comes in two flavors. The tall racing keel shown in your image and the shorter longer one mine has. My boat is much easier to launch and trailer with a keel height that is shorter than the one in your image. Deep water you would want the deeper keel. In a small lake or for a trailer sailor, the deep keel would be a bother I did not want. I found a tall keel version, for the same price, but it was needing lots of repairs and I want an easier boat to work with when launching.



My boat is pictured on the left. Higher keel boat to it's right.



That center hatch compartment in front of the cabin door is the engine compartment. This is the key feature that sold me on this boat. A blower motor brings fresh air to the engine and removes exhaust at the same time.

I wanted helm steering and the mod I am making for my Mac will fit on this boat.

Many 30 foot boats have masts that need to be set in place with a crane. This boat has a light mast that is manageable and can be stepped by one person like a Mac. Big selling point as at 55 I am not looking to kill myself with burdens I cannot handle anymore.

The head is larger than the Mac and I am hoping it is large enough. It is a porta potty version, the flush version with storage tank has been removed. I like that, if they did a good job in the conversion. I prefer simple to complex.

I hear the roads to get to her are something like ice road trucker show. Not looking forward to that very much. Sounds like an adventure.

Yep, launching looks like a pain. Looking real close it almost looks like an anchor line off the stern to help pull it off the trailer.


Might have upgrade the Hasp:

[Sumner]

Gary the boat looks nice on the outside, do you have some interior shots? Also are the two boats in the picture above the same except for the keel? The bows look a lot different, but maybe that is just the camera angle.

Also what have you found out about the sailing characteristics? I was surprised to see when I was looking up the PHRF ratings for the other post that the Mac 25 you have now is quite a bit faster than the CM30. Usually the longer hull is a big advantage...

CLIPPER MARINE 30............. 273 276 273

MACGREGOR 25................. 225 246 231

So are you going to go get her before spring? I lived in Wyoming for about 30 years. There are usually always some windows to use the roads with no snow, but be careful if you go and be prepared for a possible extensive search coming back across. They had us stopped for an hour or so and went through the Suburban and boat. I guess Ruth and I look like your typical drug runners or worst,

Sum

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Our MacGregor S Pages

Mac-Venture Links

[GaryMayo]

I only have one interior shot, so far, he said he would send along more later.



The boats are not the same in the photograph in dry dock.

Here she is in the Canada lake




I did not at first want to put images on here, as it is a Mac site. Figured I had worn out my welcome already, anyway, but you guys seem interested.

The boat seems to be rather Mac like in some ways, not so much in others.

The boat is registered on both sides of the border and I am picking her up stateside, which I am glad about.

I may get her before spring, but I am in no hurry to get it here, as I cannot sail her anyway. I will let the weather dictate that. The owner has been called away to CA. and may not be back till April. That is fine by me.

[GaryMayo]

Notice the shrouds in the above photograph and below diagram. Three in each side. The forward shroud on each side is forward of the mast, also acting like a forestay to a degree ? Correct? Seems like that would be a good thing? If I am seeing what I am seeing correctly.

Would there be an advantage to adding such a shroud to a Mac? Having all the weight on a single forestay has troubled my mind at times.

Believe I may add rigging like this to my Mac, just for safety reasons. Having a mast fall aft in a heavy wind on the lake could easily cause injury. I know keeping the rigging new and up to date is all the safety measures needed, but would some redundicy in this be a bad thing for a Mac?

Diagram also shows the two keel designs. Mine is the shorter version.

[mastreb]

The mast has to be easily moveable fore-aft when stepping the mast. Forward shrouds would be too short to lower the mast, and would have to be disconnected with a clevis or shackle. That would make a number of additional, tensioned pins that would need to be installed once the mast is up. The forestay pin is already amongst the most difficult parts of raising the mast, and additional forward stays would triple the difficulty.

There are plenty of great things you can do if you don't also need to trailer!

Matt

[Catigale]

Sum..they were probably Trying to calculate the VAT on Ruth's Sunbrella work.....

Nice boat Gary, thanks for posting.

[arknoah]

I only have one interior shot, so far, he said he would send along more later.



The boats are not the same in the photograph in dry dock.

Here she is in the Canada lake




I did not at first want to put images on here, as it is a Mac site. Figured I had worn out my welcome already, anyway, but you guys seem interested.

The boat seems to be rather Mac like in some ways, not so much in others.

The boat is registered on both sides of the border and I am picking her up stateside, which I am glad about.

I may get her before spring, but I am in no hurry to get it here, as I cannot sail her anyway. I will let the weather dictate that. The owner has been called away to CA. and may not be back till April. That is fine by me.

Looks pretty sweet!

[abruzzi]

Notice the shrouds in the above photograph and below diagram. Three in each side. The forward shroud on each side is forward of the mast, also acting like a forestay to a degree ? Correct? Seems like that would be a good thing? If I am seeing what I am seeing correctly.

I've seen a number of boats with shrouds angled both fore and aft, and in every case I've seen they've been masthead rigged. The Kittiwake 23 I almost bought had an upper that attached more or less even with the mast, then a pair of lower shrouds that attached both fore and aft of the upper shroud.

My (newb) theory is this--in a fractional setup the forestay and upper shrouds usually attach at the same point, meaning tension on them create compression on the mast and hold it up. Because the backstay attaches higher, tension there would tend to add bend to the mast. On a masthead rig, it would seem to be the opposite--backstay and forestay attach at the same point so can only create compression. If you want to add bend to the mast, in that setup, the only way would be to attach a shroud half way down that pulls forward.

I read a bunch of stuff on mast rake and bend last night, so I don't really understand it, but it sounds like a reasonable theory. You can test it by bringing up a bunch of images of masthead rigs on sailboatdata.com. I tried a dozen or so, and they all had forward and rear shrouds.

Geof