The new Tattoo

[Russ]

Hey, I like that burgee. Should make a bunch of them as semi official Macgregor owners burgee.

BTW, Blue Water Yachts is advertising an open house this weekend to see the tat in the water.
http://www.bwyachts.com/tattoo26.html

Blue Water Yachts is proud to introduce the new Tattoo 26

COME SEE IT IN THE WATER AT OUR OPEN HOUSE!!

Saturday, September 21st 10am - 4pm

The list of upgrades looks impressive.

New Bright, Airy, and Neutral Interior Color Scheme, Personalize With Nearly Any Colors
Upgraded Interior Cushions
Great New Table With Storage
Pressure Water System with Rigid Tank
New Flexible Head Door
Efficient LED Lighting
Cool New BWY Accessories Coming Soon!
Upgraded Trailer, NO Painted Parts
New Sturdier Steering Pedestal
Improved Gas Locker Hatches
Upgraded Sails
Upgraded Sailing Hardware
Upgraded Sheet Winches
New Dark Blue Exterior Trim
Improved Fit & Finish

[kmclemore]

!	kmclemore:
	I've moved the 'burgee' posts over to the "Any interest in a Mac burgee for your boat." thread. Let's discuss it there in Russ' thread instead of here as it all kind of goes together.

[SKIPPER2C]

BTW, Blue Water Yachts is advertising an open house this weekend to see the tat in the water.
http://www.bwyachts.com/tattoo26.html

Blue Water Yachts is proud to introduce the new Tattoo 26

COME SEE IT IN THE WATER AT OUR OPEN HOUSE!!

and on Facebook

Blue Water Yachts Dealer Tattoo Yachts
8 September op sellulêr
Got a new Tattoo!! The first boat has arrived and is in our shop to be rigged next week. Wow, nice looking boat and very different than the MacGregor. Better fit and finish, very pretty inside! Pictures coming tomorrow!

[Russ]

From the Blue Water Yachts facebook page. The new Tattoo sailing.
Anyone going to their open house tomorrow (Saturday 9/21/13 10am-4pm)?

The mainsail is the standard Tattoo factory included sail! It is very nice, 5 full battens and powerhead. Have yet to sail in much wind yet and uncertain of the necessity of the powerhead, but it looks nice! The cloth is still the 3.9 oz and we plan to sell an upgrade to the 5 oz. Yes, stern rail seats have been custom designed by Blue Water Yachts, that was the first project in rigging last week. Factory standard is Main Halyard led aft, but the jam cleat did not work out too well so we added rope clutchs for the main and the daggerboard. Standard Factory boom vang works great! It runs aft and is easy to control. No more traveller from the factory, we will be offering a traveller kit. Next week we will be adding the stack cover, with lazy jacks. The bigger and loose footed sail is just screaming for one to control it when lowered! Dodger and Bimini coming next week too!

And, before anyone says anything, yes the engine is down. I only had a few minutes to head out for sailing pictures, the wind was fading fast too, so we just ran the sails up and Ray Copin took the shots. Of course from his MacGregor 26M!

[kmclemore]

!	kmclemore:
	This is a cross-post from the 'Burgee' thread... any discussion of burgees should continue there - I'm only posting this here to raise awareness and to make the note on the stickers, if you folks want to wear them.

OK, so it looks like only 25 people have voted. I *know* there's a lot more folks than that who visited this forum, but being that it's been several days now I think that's about what we're gonna get.

That being the case, most folks have voted for a puffin of some sort. But that's only 21 people, and let's assume 50% of them are actually willing to *buy* such a burgee, that's probably not enough to make it a reasonable prospect, given the costs involved.

That being said, the impetus for all this was to develop a sticker we could wear while visiting the US Boat Show in Annapolis, MD, so we could all identify each other. To that end, I think that if you guys want to print off the sticker of your choice (puffin, puffin with letters, Waterbago, peaches, whatever!), as long as it has that tartan burgee style I think we'll figure out who's who at the show.

As for the burgee... well... Russ, I'll let you work that one out!

[mastreb]

I really like that stock main compared to the MacGregor stock. Tattoo is only putting a "rebate" value of $300 on that main if you purchase a boat without the main, so you may find that buying new sails from the Tattoo factory is less expensive than any other option.

Matt

[Catigale]

Kudos to Laura for giving you option on cloth vs the old model. The margin on the Kleenex sail was probably great, but getting a good mainsail is one of the best first mods on a Powersailor ( )

[Wayne nicol]

my only concern would be the "increased" weather helm( theoretically!!) on a boat that already indicates strong weather helm.
with greater roach, the c of e will move further aft- far enough to make a noticeable difference???- i dunno.
jus' a thought!

[bwygirl]

Sailed the new Tattoo with a nice couple from Colorado today, a lesson as they have a MacGregor. The boat sailed nicely, we still have light air but enough to get her moving and healing. Time will tell in higher winds how the boat performs with the powerhead sail. The sail comes standard with 5 full battens, beautiful sail! Loose foot as well so it carries the shape to the boom. The difficulity we are having, only sailing twice so not much time to figure things out, but the sail slides are hefter because of the full battens and they are more difficult when raising the sail. And, when the sail is lowered the full battens tend to pull down on the sail slide causing it to jam in the mast track. Will play with this some more, thinking the thing to do is to motor into the wind a little more to release or shake the sail more as it is coming down. We will be adding the lazy jack and stack cover and see how that goes. Other than this the boat is real nice and we are very excited to represent Tattoo!

[BOAT]

A power head on a MAC? I dunno, I got all I can take at the top of the mast. So what does that do for reefing? Reefing still leaves a lot of sail aloft?

And what do those battens do when trying to reef?

And sticky sail slugs on a boat that needs to reef in anything over 25 knots? Hmmmm - might work over here in the Pacific but the winds are a lot trickier over there in Florida. They need FishHeadBarAndGrill to take that thing on a proper shakedown. (Catigale is over there too, right?)

[Ixneigh]

Beh in 25 knots I have the reef plus a tiny hankon jib and its all she can handle. I sail by my self almost all the time so ease of handling is a must for me. I usually reef the main at 15 knots but hold onto the standard jib. In 15 to 20k she's going gangbusters. Really nice. I've glassed up the drain holes in the end of the board and relocated them to the bottom. I have a feeling those holes on the sides where causing tip turbulence and other bad stuff. Can't wait to see if I'm right or not.
Ix

[BOAT]

Hey ix-Nay, I felt that turbulence sometimes too, mostly right after raising the board 8 or 10 inches to get a little more speed. I never thought of the holes - my wife thought whales or dolphins were playing with our board, she felt it too.

[dca81]

Peg and I are visiting my son and his family in Seattle area. Fortunately, we were here when BWY had its open house for the new Tatoo and we arranged a sailing lesson. Our good fortune continued when we got our lesson on the new Tattoo and we even got sun and beautiful blue skies on our sail yesterday (I obviously need to buy a Lottery ticket ASAP). Our need for a sailing lesson speaks to my lack of sailing experience and expertise...but I have had my for three years now, sail in Colorado at 9000' altitude (meaning sudden and dramatic changes in wind direction and velocity), and both the boat and I are still right side up. My overall impression of the Tattoo is its a with some minor cosmetic and rigging changes, except for that full batten musclehead sail. The musclehead was very responsive to minor adjustments to the mainsheet and the fully batten musclehead sail shape was an object of pure beauty and peacefullness in the light to moderate winds we had yesterday. I don't think the issue with the aft batten tips dropping more quickly than the batten tips at the mast would effect reefing because it became an issue above the reefing point and just pulling the reefing lines would correct any minor misalignment. Overall, I thought the mainsail dropped as easily and neatly as on my . I always go on deck to pull down a small amont of the sail that does not drop on its own and straighten the battens. But if Cheryl percieves a minor issue then I am sure she will get it fixed.
Been said on this site many times before...but the folks at BWY are just great people to deal with . Thanks BWY/Cheryl for the great sail and learning experience.
Bob and Peg

[bwygirl]

Todd and I will be at the Annapolis Boat Show. It would be nice to have a sticker so we can identify other MacGregor owners from here. Did it get deceided what to print?

[Baerkanu]

Sailed the new Tattoo with a nice couple from Colorado today, a lesson as they have a MacGregor. The boat sailed nicely, we still have light air but enough to get her moving and healing. Time will tell in higher winds how the boat performs with the powerhead sail. The sail comes standard with 5 full battens, beautiful sail! Loose foot as well so it carries the shape to the boom. The difficulity we are having, only sailing twice so not much time to figure things out, but the sail slides are hefter because of the full battens and they are more difficult when raising the sail. And, when the sail is lowered the full battens tend to pull down on the sail slide causing it to jam in the mast track. Will play with this some more, thinking the thing to do is to motor into the wind a little more to release or shake the sail more as it is coming down. We will be adding the lazy jack and stack cover and see how that goes. Other than this the boat is real nice and we are very excited to represent Tattoo!

Cheryl, if you remember we got the powerhead, full-batten, loose-footed mainsail on Baerkanu when we picked her up a year ago. I don't have anything to compare it to with regard to the boat being overpowered, but we don't have much of an issue with the sail slugs, going either up or down. They're a PITA to get in the slot when setting up, however!

About the only issue we have is fairly consistent lee helm; I've tightened the shrouds to just shy of not being able to pin the furler, which helped but didn't eliminate the issue. I sure don't see the weather helm issue everyone talks about with Macs.

For BOAT - the battens don't see to affect reefing one way or another, the first reef is below the first batten, the 2nd reef just above it.

- Clay