into the tropical water of Koh Samui for the first time. And she pretty much stayed in there most of the time. As it was my goal to set up a day trip business to tourists, the goal for the first half year was to get to know the boat and the nautical area. To give the grand summary at this point: it has been a fantastic time, my wife and myself enjoyed many days of boating pleasure, hours of considerations and tests on performance and of course there were a few extreme situations as well.
Motoring:
As I want to commercially offer ALL capabilities of the boat we pretty much tried everything that was promised by Macgregor. That´s including waterski and wakeboarding. Surprisingly the 50HP Yamaha 4stroke (carburated) could do it from the first day - even with a 13,75x13 propeller on it. The boat makes 13 knots with a 90 kg person to pull and 14kts with a lighter one or a slight tailwind. With 3 persons on the boat and a light load that is. So it´s enough to pull someone on extra wide waterskies oder do wakeboarding - even jumps over the sternwave are possible. Topspeed with light load and only me on board was 17kts in FLG water.
I studied the statements and test results on props for hours on this forum and tested 4 props on my engine.
The genuine Yamaha prop that came with the engine was doing quite a good job - as I worked out later after testing others. There was only one prop slightly exceeding the overall performance of the Yammi: the Solas Amita 3x14x11.
BUT: only very slightly. Both stated props make only 4900rpm and both have app. the same rpm/speed results. The Solas is a bit better in jumping the boat on a plane, and top speed is maybe a knot better when heavily loaded (6persons + provisioning, fuel etc.). Speed readings were done by gps.
If you are interested why I´m happy with these low rpms and which other props iI tested I´ll go into details on that at a later time.
Sailing:
it took quite a bit of time till I got the old confidence that I had when I was a sailing teacher on Hoby Cats about 10 years ago. The tendency to heel even in light winds was very unusual to me. later I worked out, that most of the heeling momentum comes from the headsail, not from the mainsail! One of my best moments on the boat was when I went out and sailed her singlehanded for a couple of hours really being able to work out the limits.
On one occasion I tried the assym. spinacker that I ordered with the boat. Want to do that again soon...
Also we sailed unballasted in a very light breeze of course. That was quite amazing to make 3 kts. in maybe 4kts of wind!
Questions:
# why is the centerboard WAY smaller than the centerboard trunk resulting in the famous noise when you want to sleep + in massive wear of the fiberglass structure (on the slim backside of the board where it touches the trunk when down) after a few sailing hours. I got the centerboard fixed up together with the 100hrs engine service, only to discover that the same problem occurred again shortly after.
# why is the boat so stern heavy when not ballasted? It seems to me that HPs is one thing to talk about but another one is the unballasted balance of then boat. I give you an example: I´m on the boat with 2 other people. Everyone is in the cockpit: 14kts @ 4.800 rpm then I send the 2 persons to the bow: 16 kts @ 4.800 rpm
I tried this on many occasions and it´s always the same result. Only situation, when this is maybe helpful are high seas - but maybe not even then. I now try to work out, which heavy items I can put into the bow compartments. There are only 2 ideas: water or gas
# 2 times a fuse (of the masthead light) broke resulting in a totally empty battery. At one occasion i was traveling at night bringing customers to their hotel. All lights incl GPS and engine trim failed in a bay full of reefs and rocks. Luckily I know the area pretty well...
# how can the people @ macgregor think, an average person would be happy with the transom entrance through the extremely narrow space between rudders, engine and raised seat?
My suggestions for the M successor:
- chop off at least one foot of boat heigth and add it to the width (I know, there´s this US limit, but why not make a non US version?)
- put a foldable ladder on each boat for easy access
- increase cockpit space at the expense of cabin space
- increase hull stability
- offer lazy jacks as an option
- re-introduce the old pedestal - it gives a few centimeters more space in the cockpit
- optional in-cabin fuel compartments (like the new odin has it)
- find a more ergonomic position for the helms-seat/pedestal (a have a sore back frequently)
- add a second water inlet/outlet; this would emergency filling so much quicker and safer.
Oops ... can´t post that URL. Whatever, not so important for now...
Good Winds
Gerry from Thailand
| ! | Frank C (Mod-Edit): |
| Gerry, good story. Thanks & welcome aboard. After you enter just a couple of additional posts, you will qualify to post your URL, and pictures if you want. In fact, you might want to add your URL in the Website field of your Member's Profile. |
will appreciate the plan as it is a dead copy of it but bigger.