26M mod list

[KiwiMac26m]

Hi fellow mac enthusiasts.

I eventualy got my Mac 26m and have added the following mods.

1. drum Anchore winch and auto launching anchore roller
2. Rotating Mast hound for the forestay , with mechanical linkage to wind instruments to keep them faceing forwarde even when the mast rotates
3. Hydraulic steering
3. Auto Pilot, B&G Valcan 7 C/P with NAC2 computer, precision 9 compass and rudder feed back unit.
4. Wireless blue tooth wind instrements on top of the mast.
5. 100Ahr Lithium battery system for house
6. 120w solar panel on the rear mast arch
7. chest fridge freezer attached to the sliding gally so i slides away for night mode
8. 120l +/- 30 gallon water bladder under V berth with pressure water at the gally and at the motor
9, Gas hot water sytem, just plugs into the water supply at the motor and the engine well is a nice shower tray.
10. Underwater stern lights
11. Noot really a mod, more of a re-instatement to original, the previus owner built a 4 x 4 inch wooden laminate onto the port side to come in hard to pole moorings. it looked ugly so i took months to cut it off and then repainted the entire hull with 2 pac polyurethane.
Thanks to this site i did a lot of reasearch on mods and then installed what i felt would work for me, happy to share knoledge and tips with anyone wanting to do similar mods.

I will take a few pics of various mods and add them later

Happy sailing

[kurz]

to mod 2:
I long time was thinking about a windwane that mechanically stays facing front when mast rotats.

Meanwhile I decided to go plug and play. So I bought openwind wind instrument.

It is solar powered and goes via bluetooth down to your mobile. I use the nmea2000 receiver down in the cabin. The wind data goes via the raymarine network to the autopilot ev-100. The autopilot display shows me the wind data. so no extra display is needed. The openwind compensates the mast rotation. On top I have the gps module included so I can see the speed in the AP display.

https://www.openwind.de/de/buy/openwind

I still am on testing the system out.

[NiceAft]

KiwiMac26M,

Impressive!

I don’t know where to begin, so let’s leave it at impressive

Is the flying fish design on the bow a Māori symbol While I’m asking, I can’t make out the name of your

[adudinsk]

How did you mount the underwater lights?
Any photo of the wiring?

Thanks in advance

AD

[Russ]

First, WELCOME to the forum.

Awesome list of mods. Some intriguing.

Would love to see some pictures and further explanations.

[OverEasy]

Hi KiwiMac26m!

Wow!
Great looking vessel and impressive modifications that you have accomplished! Well Done!

You mentioned a drum winch.
This is a mod that we are working toward ourselves for Over Easy.
Would it be possible to share some photos of your installation and some of the technical aspects of your work on this mod?

You also mentioned that you incorporated an auto launching anchor roller that would be interesting to know more about!

Best Regards
Over Easy

[Ixneigh]

I redid my shroud telltails this year.


Ix

[KiwiMac26m]

Hi
Thanks for all the positive replies.

My babys name is Ika rere, meaning Flying Fish in Māori hence the logo designed by a local artist.

The open wind instrument looks very good, does it have a referance base unit that calculates the mast rotation?

As for the other mods, ill add some details in seperate posts

first the underwater lights as they were pretty easy as well as the bording ladder, (one of the most used mods)
the lights were mounted under the water line, only just, then i used electrical square capping to lead the wires up about a foot above the water line, then finished it off with a cable entry cap, all glued together with 3M 5200
these light have 5 wires, a comman and a negative for each of the four coulors, so i just wired them into w 4 way rotary switch with indicator LEDs inside to show what coulor is on outside, and ofcourse a main on off switch.
the second photo shows my new electrical control pannel mounted behind the companionway ladder.


in this picture you can also see the solar 120w mount, the stays for the solar can be adjusted to optimize the angle to the sun by loosening thumb screws.

Next post will be the anchor systems

[NiceAft]

Again, impressive.


I’m sure those more mechanical than I will have many questions.

[KiwiMac26m]

Before i post the anchor systems here are 2 more mods i fogot about

The stereo system
cockpit wash board

both made out of 10mm perspex, the wash board is great as it stops stuff rolling out te back and is transparent so i can see the engine through it.

[KiwiMac26m]

The anchor system.

this was a big job! i looked a a few other systems and then had to decide what I wanted, so here was my thinking.

I solo sail and stay on my boat for up to 10 days at a time, here in NZ the wind can be very eratic and it is not unusual to find that you need to move in the middle of the night with the wind blowing you onto the shore or worse rocks. It was imperitive that i had an auto system run from the helm.

normal gypsy systems require a drop of at least 450mm a bout a foot and a half, without major fibreglass modification makeing the locker deeper i settled on a drum winch, the smalles one i could find was the Maxwell 600w, for it to work properly it needs to be mounted dead center ( the size of the drum and motor did not allow me to offset the center to work with the original side mounted bow roller.)
What had to be done:
a new bow roller was required that would be dead centre, which led to my forestay modification, i welded the forward chain plate to the back portion of the bow roller then added a horse shoe bracket raising the forestay mount a bit making room for the anchor to slide in through the horse shoe bracket.

Next i manufactured a stainless steel drum winch mount that secured to the back of the locker as well as the sides, this was glued and screwed in place and is much stronger than needed
With the drum in place the locker lid was 50mm higher than before so i made a mould around the lid and extended it by 50mm.

I ran the cables back to the start battery and the control cable to the helm.
I love this mod, so easy to use and very safe no more going forward to set or pull up the anchor

[KiwiMac26m]

A bit of the back story.

I fell in love with Magregors about 20 yrs ago when i bought my first Mac19, the only mod i did on that was to convert it to helm steering, since then i have had many other boats, my last one was a 35ft 6ton steel launch or trawler for those in the states.
So last year i sold my Launch and started to look out for a new project and i always wanted a Mac 26. I then found one on the south Island (Im on the north Island) due to the world madness it was not posible for me to go view it in person so i relied on photos from the owner. all looked good and i asked if there were an non standard mods done, of coarse he said no.

So i purchased her, On picking her up in Wellington ( a 12 hr drive for me) my excitement was a bit deflated as i watched her come off the ferry, there was something odd on the port side, apparently the previous owner used her in fast currents when launching and retriving so he laminated a 4x4 inch wooden structure about 6 yards long on the port side which he could use to ram into the pole morrings in the current before pulling her out.
It looked ugly but i did not let that stop me, I was determained to fix her, it took about 3 months to carefully cut the timber of inch by inch. A few weeks more to repair the fibre glass and fair out divits, At first i hoped to just do minimal repair to the gelcoat but that was not to be.
After loads of reaserch i decided to repaint her hull completely and personalize her, i went with 2 pac Polyurethane with 3 coats of 2pac under coat and 6 top coats, the polyurathane does not bleach as fast as gel coat and was a lot less sanding, besides now that i have the paint fixing minor scratches is easy and perfectly colour matched.
All this was done outdoors through NZ winter with many lay days with rain, eventually i found freind with a big enough shed to allow me to do the spray painting part inside and then the rest of the mods.
Its been a huge labour of love and now i get to enjoy her for the summer, this post was done from a lovely bay

[KiwiMac26m]

does anyone know how i can reply to indevidual replies?

[kurz]

The open wind instrument looks very good, does it have a referance base unit that calculates the mast rotation?

Yes,the openwind.de works like this: On the mast top (or somewhere else) you mount the windvane. You need no cable, it is solar/battery powered. It sends bluetooth signals.
Under deck there is the receiver. It converts bluetooth signals to nmea2000 or 183. In this receiver device there is a second compass installed (and in mine a gps). So it gets the compass signal from the mast windvane and compares the compass signal from the boat direction. In this setting it calculates the position of the rotation mast and sends a wind angle signal that compensats the rotation of the mast.

[adudinsk]

Thanks for all the great photos!

LOTS of work ... great job!