steering wander at low motor speeds

[Theo]

Folks!

Seems kind of a pain though. Rudders down in marina, then rudders up to get out to open water, then rudders down again to sail.

Boy he nailed it. In my oh so humble opinion that is a major price we pay for our boats. The sheer complexity! Add on towing and mast raising, taking the Mac for swim is a very busy, complicated process. Still I would not have it any other way. But when people ask what is the price you pay for a boat that does it all, there it is.

This is by no means any kind of indictment of MacGregors or the concept. As a matter of fact once you know this and factor it into account you will have a lot more fun and less stress with your boat. For example, when trailered we rarely take the boat out just for a day. Given the complexity and hassle of towing and launching we usually try to at least make a solid weekend out of it. But if you take that little thing into account it still leaves you with so many options. For a change of pace, we do try to wrangle slips or moorings, for a month or so occasionally, to get the benefit of having her in the water ready to go at a moments notice. On the open ocean I can go months without taking the ballast out, whereas on some lakes I blast along at 15 to 16 mph even with a pretty full load.

Best of most worlds. Just remember to adjust your boat to your wishes, because you can.

Enjoy,

Theo

[Berber Boy]

It drove me crazy as well on my Following the advice given by others and experience all help gradually.
Recently I really tightened up the assembly mechanism under the back and added two SS washers with grease between them between every moving surface. Now I have only very marginal play which I assume is in the Rack and Pinion assembly itself.
On the other hand from dead centre with the wheel and the rudders in line it takes one turn to clockwise plus 5minutes on the wheel to reach maximum and from centre 1 full turn and 30 minutes anti-clockwise to reach maximum. This would seem to indicate that the steering cable needs adjusting to balance up but I cannot figure how to do that. Any advice out there?

BB

For example, when trailered we rarely take the boat out just for a day. Given the complexity and hassle of towing and launching we usually try to at least make a solid weekend out of it.

I think Theo also nailed it. I now rarely go out for just a day.

BB

[Ron]

Also, I think worth mention is the high freeboard of the Mac makes it react strongly to any type of wind -- more so in my experience than most powerboats. Compensating for the wind at low speeds is very important.

[magnetic]

the problem is worst around Hull Speed - 6 - 8 knots.

Below this, she's reasonably predictable, in a "I hope there is no significant wind across the bow" kind of way

Above this, she's fine once you get her up on the plane (which I call 10 knots +)

In the middle - unlike Goldilocks - my is like a bear with a sore head, and will take no telling.

Show her a wave, show her a puff of wind, show her a lapse of concentration, and off she goes, straight off into the blue yonder. A pig by any other name

I hestitate to use boards and rudders at 7 knots for fear of rolling her; I can't always achieve 12 knots if the sea is a bit lumpy or the bottom a bit encrusted. And 8 knots is pretty much where I would like to be on the rev counter (around 4000 - 4500 for my truly horrid little Honda BF50), but it depends pretty much on her mood on any given day

[Crikey]

I can understand the rudders needing to be up past the 6mph limit but can 6 inches of daggerboard be handled safely at speeds higher than this? It would then seem to look a bit like a skeg on a ski boat, which are used for directional control. Possibly too much slop in the channel for this to work without a mod.

Ross

[mastreb]

I can understand the rudders needing to be up past the 6mph limit but can 6 inches of daggerboard be handled safely at speeds higher than this? It would then seem to look a bit like a skeg on a ski boat, which are used for directional control. Possibly too much slop in the channel for this to work without a mod.

Ross

Having the daggerboard down at all at planning speed changes the pivot point of the boat from the stern to amidships, and that can cause the boat to bite during a turn and lean opposite the turn rather than into it, which can cause a capsize. I wouldn't play with it.

[nedmiller]

My son-in-law has a white water canoe with a slick smooth bottom that makes it easily blown around by the wind when on a lake and hard to keep going in a straight line. I think without boards down, the Mac handles like it does---hard to stabilize in a straight line and highly affected by wind. A regular canoe is so much better on a lake with wind because of a small inch high keel running the length. What would be the disadvantage to building up a small fiberglass strip to act as a keel. I've seen shallow draft sailboats with keels running almost their whole length so I wouldn't think it would keep you from coming about, etc. Any thoughts on this? Has anyone added something like this, or even put KeelGuard back behind the keel? I put KeelGuard ahead of the keel and I think it helped dampen the wandering.

SILK

[Ixneigh]

The boat needs two partial skegs from about amidships to the stern and about four inches deep. These will cause some drag but will increase handleling at operating speeds but decrease turning radius at idle speed. Stuff like weather or not to have one is personal preferance, and we got stuck with rogers prefs for M. Shes pretty nimble if you put the board down a bit.

[Crikey]

Probably right about the mid position of the skeg idea (with the rudder) being too far forward under power - though I didn't say plane, but really meant that as well. There were much earlier posts that I had read where fears were expressed about the Mac 'tripping' over the keel, or rudder if turned sharply at speed. If it was a very small surface I doubt if it would have that much capability.
However ski boats - sometimes with three skegs - which are usually positioned much further back, as you mentioned, do very well and in a Macgregors case could significantly aid in directional stability. Getting on and off the trailer would not be business as usual!
I'm going to try and look into this further.

Ross

[DaveC426913]

Folks!

Seems kind of a pain though. Rudders down in marina, then rudders up to get out to open water, then rudders down again to sail.

Boy he nailed it. In my oh so humble opinion that is a major price we pay for our boats. The sheer complexity! Add on towing and mast raising, taking the Mac for swim is a very busy, complicated process. Still I would not have it any other way. But when people ask what is the price you pay for a boat that does it all, there it is.

You're right. You have shown me the light.

Flexibility is not free; it takes a little attention.

If I wanted to do one thing and one thing only, and have every sheet and widget set just so, I would not have wanted a Mac in the first place!

[bscott]

This http://www.powerthruster.com and lowering my center board 6" slolved my wandering issues once you learn not to over correct.

Bob

[Gazmn]

If & when appropriate, consider this:
Backing in...

This is a canal in Key Largo where I stayed for a month a few years ago. While it's a reasonably sized canal just off the main artery, I found it easier to back in through the canal once in safe harbor. It was a rather windy February & I worried about blowing into trouble. Too many boats more expensive than mine that I didn't want to hit. I saw the big sportfish captains do it reversing into their slip.[minus twin screws & throttles for us]

Turn around [you facing astern] with the wheel behind you in both hands, thumbs down. Simply move thumb down in the direction you want to go, [shimmying the wheel] easy does it, the boat folows behind you

PS: Rudders & CB/DB down as much as depth allows. Look at the top of your rudders to know when straight or in port / starboard direction; don't overturn.

-Cheers

[NiceAft]

Greg,

I have not seen you post in awhile. Welcome back.

If I'm wrong,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,never mind

Ray

[magnetic]

my certainly does steer far better in astern, though my throttle lever is a little sticky, and I need to be careful with how I dose out the power, because the boat doesn't glide nearly as well going backwards; kill the power and you immediately lose all way and all steerage

[Gazmn]

Been Busy, Busy, Busy Ray...
But thanx for noticin'