Fastest Trailerable Mac?

[Loala]

Looking for a 26D but there is nothing out there. WIll keep looking, they come up for sale all the time. Looking for a nice one with 4-stroke.

Steve K was the mast any easier to raise on the D over the X or about the same?
Also, what do you do when you get weather helm? Ease the sheets? I had it bad on my X and that was the only thing that helped me but slowed the boat down way too much.

I sail Big Bear Lake and tried switching from the jib to the 150 Genny and lost 2mph. Anyone else experience that or did the Genny help you? Hope I don't have the same problem with the D.

[Loala]

I love confidence, if makes for a better skipper. If you ever bring your boat out west be sure and call me.

Better yet, bring it to Havasu 2013. The Mac race will help you refine your skills and show us how fast your V25 get's it on.

Newell, where can I find the info on the 2013 Havasu event? Is this strictly a race or a fun run get-together also maybe?

Thanks!

[Loala]

CUSCUS, that's some great food for thought! We have several J/24 fleets her in SoCal and are very competitive.

I wonder how for off the sail size is compared to the 26 on both sails?

[Sumner]

Looking for a 26D but there is nothing out there. WIll keep looking, they come up for sale all the time. Looking for a nice one with 4-stroke..

The Idasailor/Rudder Craft rudder, shown above, on a S or D is a big improvement and takes out a lot of the weather
helm and makes for two finger steering vs. the stock rudder. I'd be looking for a D with that improvement or plan on that in the cost if I was looking.

Our boat, an S, came with one and was a big plus when we looked at it over other Macs,

Sum

Our MacGregor 26-S

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[Steve K]

Steve K was the mast any easier to raise on the D over the X or about the same?
Also, what do you do when you get weather helm? Ease the sheets? I had it bad on my X and that was the only thing that helped me but slowed the boat down way too much.

Big Bear?
I've always thought about sailing up there, even when I had my X boat. I've just never gotten around to it.

The mast is easier to raise, however, I did have the CDI furler on the X boat. On the D boat I have hank on head sails and I actually prefer the simplicity. I do have mast raising gear. I stand right behind the companionway with the rope in hand, give the mast a push with my left arm and pull the mast raising rope with my right, to get it started. It's not much really. I have raised it by hand before, but like the control of the mast raising gear.
Last time out, we had to motor for a couple hours, back to the marine, due to no wind. So while the wife drove the boat, I de-rigged everything I could. I had nothing there but the mast, by the time we got to the marina. I forgot that I needed the jib halyard for the mast lowering, so I drop it by hand. No real biggy.

Weather helm:
What's that?
Kidding, but the way my D boat is set up, I don't really have any (or lee helm either). I have no mast rake and an improved rudder. I rebuilt the old one using the plan that the "Rudder Craft" rudder was based on. It's like having power steering as far as effort goes, but I still get good feedback through the tiller.

In higher winds, particularly gusty ones, I usually leave the head sail alone and de-power the main in gusts, by letting out the mainsheet, if I have to. Usually heading up a little helps too.

My X boat was a 1997. She had the Popsicle stick rudders and very bad weather helm. I took out all the mast rake I could and it helped some, but there were times where she would just sit and spin until the gust subsided

The D boat is very responsive to control changes and will tell you what she wants. She can take a lot more than me and my wife actually likes it better than the X. She said, on our last trip, that she liked being closer to the water, in the cockpit and it felt safer to her than she did in the X. When the X heeled, she got very nervous, but in the D, she'll sit on the low side and when I get over around 20 degrees, she'll say "don't get my hair wet" with a smile on her face.

Last time out, (D boat) we started with light breezes and a wind report of the same for the day. Well, we started out motoring on glass then finally got some breeze. We set the main and Genoa and were having a great sail. For a short while, the wind really got up there and I was a little over powered. I flattened out the main with the outhaul an let the genny do most of the work, while wishing I had only put up the jib a couple of times. We hit 7 knots a couple of times and averaged mid 6s for over an hour. Later, the wind settled and finally died again. We were tired out and having sat waiting for a breeze a couple days earlier, while the sun baked us, we decided to motor into the marina and call it a day.

I think I can dip the rub rail and still have control of the boat. I got close a couple times. But these boats will actually be faster when not over powered. I was glad it was only scary for 20 or 30 minutes, this day. I have been in the same situation and alone at that, when it just kept getting worse and worse. It's not easy to leave the helm to drop a head sail or reef the main in these conditions and Mead has this way of giving you NO warning, sometimes.

This, btw, was the same day I spoke of earlier, when Newell started out later than us and therefore over a mile behind us and ended up overtaking us.

When you find your D boat (I hope you do..... you'll love it), you'll have to haul it up to Mead with us sometime. We go a couple time a year. I'm in Hesperia, btw.

Best Breezes,
Steve K.
Mac 26D "Three Sheets"

[Loala]

Hi Sumner. Thanks for the heads up. I will definitely look into that. BTW I love your Powell photos! I need to get back there as I haven’t been in 20+ years! What a wonderful place and I need to share it with my kids once we get our new boat.

Steve, great post! I have to LOL because you describe our 1995 X to a tee and by your writing I think our Admirals may have something in common. My wife is used to racing Hobie Cats and always complained about being so far away from the water.

We will go to Big Bear one day. It’s small but has pretty good breezes that start up shortly before noon usually. How is Lake Mead doing? I thought the water was down like 100+ ft. Is it really bad or not too noticeable? I want to take the new boat & family to many lake-camping trips

I had the CDI on my X as well and loved it! It will be hard for me not to put one on the D when it arrives. Maybe we can go out one day and you can convince me otherwise.

We had a big VHF antenna at the top of our mast and with the coax, haul lines, 150 Genny & forestay it always took two people to raise and lower. And by the end of a long sailing day there were many times I could barely muster up the energy to deal with de-rigging so we could drive a few miles to the campground.

Naturally our boat had the twin popsicles for rudders as well and I thought there was something wrong with the boat as we were heading up and instead of the boat bouncing up & down it was bouncing left & right! Not only that but there was a few very scary times I would turn to port and the boat pushed to starboard! Good thing we were in the middle of the lake the few times it happened. But I was always worried it would happen sometime in the future when other boats might be in close proximity. Prolly something I was doing wrong but I hope this never happens with the new boat.

Thanks for all the great info.

This is a fantastic board!

[Steve K]

loala,

You wrote:

I had the CDI on my X as well and loved it! It will be hard for me not to put one on the D when it arrives. Maybe we can go out one day and you can convince me otherwise.

We had a big VHF antenna at the top of our mast and with the coax, haul lines, 150 Genny & forestay it always took two people to raise and lower. And by the end of a long sailing day there were many times I could barely muster up the energy to deal with de-rigging so we could drive a few miles to the campground.

For the reasons you mention, I just got to where I like the simple, light weight hank on head sails. I have thought of, perhaps, one of those furling setups that you can use the hank ons and still hoist and lower them with the halyard. Or maybe leading halyards to the cockpit. Either of these options would come in handy when single handing, particularly when you want to take sail down in bad conditions. But then, every time the furler on the X boat decided to give trouble, it was in such conditions....... Murphy's law, I guess. As far as leading halyards aft goes, now one would almost always want downhauls to go with it. So here are four more lines to rig and thread through blocks and clutches etc. I just want to get to the water, get the mast up and get going and, as you say, I'm tired when it's time to take all that stuff apart, so the less the better. I've gotten pretty good at walking over a bobbing cabin top and foredeck anyway

Kinda busy, at the moment (home improvements), but would like to take you for a sail later (if you haven't already gotten your own D by then). It's a pretty short trip to Big Bear from my place, going the back way (up from Lucerne)......... pretty steep, but not like I'd have the boat packed up for a week at Mead. We'll talk more on this. Maybe we could meet up at Silverwood. I think it's smaller than Big Bear though.......... anyway, we'll talk.
Funny, I retired almost two years ago and I've been busier than I ever was while working. Part two of my 120 foot concrete driveway goes in next week. The wife and I have built about 250 ft of cement block walls and poured around 30 cubic yards of concrete. When I say the wife and I, it means her and me doing the work, not looking through Angie's list

Here's a picture of the D boat on a good profile (Thanks for the pic, Pat). You can see the mast is almost pointing forward. It certainly lacks in rake.
https://www.box.com/s/590ea272a72b1f34bc93

That beautiful main is a full batten, loose foot from FX sails, incase anyone wants to know.

Best Breezes,
Steve K.
Mac 26D "Three Sheets" (one for the mainsl and two for the genoa )

[Steve K]

Oh! forgot.

How is Lake Mead doing? I thought the water was down like 100+ ft. Is it really bad or not too noticeable? I want to take the new boat & family to many lake-camping trips

Mead is great! I've been going there for around 12 years now. I know a 100 feet sounds like a lot, but it's a HUGE lake. It did get a little skinny in a few places a couple years ago. Damaged my daggerboard sailing in an area I'd sail over for years. For some reason my gps (has a sounder) was in simulation mode and didn't warn me. But the lake was up 47 feet last year and, I think it's up another 20 or so now. So, you can sail Lake Mead for days and still not see it all. Heck, I haven't seen it all.

I was fortunate though as the first year I went there you could sail all the way up to the mouth of the Grand Canyon. We haven't been able to do this since.

It's a big, beautiful lake and, in fact, the water has been really beautiful, these past two years, in particular. Just look at that deep blue water around my boat in the pic I don't always like the wind conditions there, but when they are right, there's no place better. If you like boat camping, Mead can't be beat. There are a thousand coves and there is always one you can call your own for the night. The upper basins are the best for sailing. The lower "Boulder" basin is the most used by boaters and can get busy with power boats and jet skis on the weekends. During the week it's another story, particularly in the upper basins. I've been out there at times that one would think the world ended and you were the only one left.

SK

[Steve K]

Sorry, but one more thing.
To give some perspective, you can see the power boat off my port bow in the pic for one thing.
Also, the waterline on the mountain in the background is about half as tall as it was (and still towers over my boat when I'm close to these cliffs) . If another MacGregor was sailing 20 feet offshore from there, you could barely see it in the pic and you could, likely, not see a powerboat at all.

Here's one from a couple years ago and if you look closely, you can see another sailboat astern of me off the port. He's probably a thousand yards, to a mile from the mountain in the background.

https://www.box.com/shared/t749sfc1t4

SK again
(I'll shut up for awhile now )

[Loala]

Steve, Whenever you're ready just let us know ahead of time so we can get the sitter for the kids & we would be happy to help out. We live only about an hour from the lake. I'm excited and looking foward to sailing Lake Mead as well.

Your boat is beautiful and exactly what I'm looking for. We're searching about 5 different search engines everyday so if something pops up we should know about it.

Here is a picture in 2009 of me single handing our Loala at the south-east end of Big Bear Lake on a stellar day!

[Newell]

Loala,

There are some Ds for sale here: http://boat.jaxed.com/cgi-bin/boat.cgi? ... submit=+GO+

Most are 5000+. I think Steve K and I both paid less but started with fix-uppers. Mine still is far down on creature comforts. You will be lucky to find one with a decent trailor.

As far as information on Havasu 2013 see the venue on Trips and Destinations and search Havasu or do a web search for Sail Havasu. Sean Mulligan does a great website. I have this bookmark if it will work:

https://www.regonline.com/register/conf ... wAAOffer=1

The feature that caps the Ds performance is also it's biggest liability, in my opinion, that is the daggerboard. If you sail skinny waters a CB is much more forgiving. Still we aren't hearing tons of complaints from all the M owners, so sail on.

I have never seen a D as well appointed as Steve's, if you go with a D, plan on doing upgrades.

[Steve K]

Very nice complement Newell, thanks
You have the fast boat though. Mine is very fast and you walked away from me all week long.

Are you sailing without ballast again


BTW, loala,
I'm putting together some pics from a few years ago of Mead, to give people and idea of the scope of the lake. I'll be posting the link shortly.

[Steve K]

In the "Destinations, Clubs, Events and Venues" forum, see my post entitled, "The Scope of Lake Mead, NV."

Hey Loala,

I think I saw you sailing Big Bear once, while driving by there and I'm certain I've seen that picture before, somewhere, because at the time I saw the pic, I thought, "I've seen this boat up on Big Bear". The clue is that you don't see one with the boat name towards the bow and in Script.
nice pic
I'll get hold of you later and we'll go for a sail
SK

[Loala]

Hey Steve!

Trying to get ahold of you.

Please check your pm.

[Steve K]

Finally did......... sorry