Zeno's Arrow

[Tom Root]

Maddmike, yes I am a died in the wool Mac fan, been sailing them for 20+ years, and owned 3 of them in that time.

I am leaning toward a 65' Mac purchase in the future, but with the mods you speak of.....hmmm, second thought's on that. But I have South Pacific destinations in mind here though, and SCUBA diving back in the places of my youth when in the Marine Corps. Australia, and the Phillipine Islands and many atolls that exist, dotting the Pacific are calling me!

Just a dream currently, but I keep it alive, ya never know!

The outrigger design sounds great, along with the mast and rigging changes. The Keel mods were a thought of mine also, almost like you read my mind, but you did it! Performance enhancements always catch my eye, and it sounds like you nailed it!

[maddmike]

Ya Tom, the Pacific Islands!!!
I lived in Hawaii back in '70 & '71 (worked Crash/Rescue-Search/Rescue; guess I'm dating myself), Also, worked on Johnston Atoll for awhile & really fell in love with the area in the early '80 when I had the opportunity to work as a Zodiac driver & Expedition Leader on the Lindblad Explorer, World Discoverer, and Frontier Spirit, all little 'Tourist' Expedition ships that zip about the world to really remote and exotic places. But, nothing can beat getting to remote places on your own boat, at your own pace, and using your own know-how.; that's what I'm looking forward to! I'll be off the net until Monday as I'm going off to spend the weekend out sailing on a local Sri Lankan Proa, very cool here (two bows, no stren, and two masts, gotta love it)! By the way you must be a night owl as it's 3:00PM in the afternoon for me here (afternoon coffee break, just in case my boss is watching). Mike

[maddmike]

OK, turns out I'll be able to answer exactly some of the how far, how long, how fast 'off-shore' questions by Monday as I do have my Garman GPS & laptop here with me & never did clear most of my routes. As for pix, it looks like I'll have to post them on the Macgregorowners.com site at my 'Mac 26 off-shore' thread as I will be receiving them by e-mail & I will also scan & post some of my arrival & departure 'Passport' stamps that have 'Zeno's Arrow' on them; should give a fairly good estimate of many of the passages (sorry my logs are in Carson City). If anyone knows how to capture my photos from that site and transfer them here it would be helpful once I start getting into describing what I've done to the boat. Oh ya, almost forgot-one of the really cool things about the outriggers is they can be attached together & with the twin 6hp. outboards & a jungle hammock make a really fun overnight tender & lets you get away from the occasional guest or charter couple that want some privacy. All for now, Maddmike.

[James V]

maddmike - Looking forward to reading about all the "cool things" that you have done.

[LOUIS B HOLUB]

AHOY THERE MaadMike ... We MAC OWNERS pride ourselves in having the "BESTEST" "on/with/to" Mac Adventures, BUT you've out done us all without question....if we're being HONEST. Some SAILORs are like FISHERMEN...seems the "CATCH" gets BIGGER at each retelling of the story. OH WELL...MaadMike....you are the "JOHN WAYNE", "Clint Eastwood", "Arnold Swartzenegger" in the Mac Sailing Adventures..."if the facts are correct".

I'm sure Im not hearing the "RUMBLINGS" of jealousy out there from fellow MAC OWNERS being outdone with MAC STORIES...TALES....ADVENTURES....HA...nawwwww....not a chance.

MaadMike.....MAC OWNERS from everywhere want to hear more...COMON'...so far I'm a BELIEVER....

WATER + + SAILOR = Great Fun..... (AGREED ??)

[Tom Root]

Oh ya, almost forgot-one of the really cool things about the outriggers is they can be attached together & with the twin 6hp. outboards & a jungle hammock make a really fun overnight tender & lets you get away from the occasional guest or charter couple that want some privacy. All for now, Maddmike.

Wow, what a concept! Some real Innovation, Mike!

[Tahoe Jack]

Hey Maddmike....left you a personal message...pm..as shown on the bottom of each post...you can retrieve it by clicking on the 'you have messages' text near the top of page just below the ads etc. I gave my actual email address or, you could do the pm as a response. Hope we don't wear you out with questions....looking forward to hearing of your saga and mods etc. Maybe one of the site geek folks could coach you re posting pics on this site....seems like they are using a freebie storage site named photobucket and a link here in your post. Jack

[maddmike]

Louis,

Lets not get carried away here. I do not think it is very fair compairing what I do with my boat to those of other MAC owners and should not really count as some kind of 'record' someone needs to try to beat with their boat. It would be a good idea to compare your challenges to others out in the real world of day sailing, overnight/weekend/week trips, or other common sense uses for which the boat was intended.

Keep in mind the following; I've spent most of my adult life as a PROFESSIONAL adventurer, adventure travel guide, and expedition leader. That means I made a living and got paid (not well often, but I did get paid) to take risks & do things that would not be found to be acceptable uses for MOST of the equipment we employed on our adventures (ask any pilot about flying a small twin engine aircraft to the south pole & their reaction would be the same as asking MAC owners their reaction to taking the boat off-shore).

Some information on how I propose to proceed with this thread:
Thanks to a couple of helpful posters, I will soon start posting pictures of the modifications to the boat. I will try to do it in relation to WHY the modification came about. This gives me the opportunity to tell what we in my business commonly refer to as a 'NO S**T, THERE I WAS STORY'. I intend to start with the first major modifications, which came about during my trip up the Mackenzie River from Tuktuyuktuk NWT to Great Slave Lake in 1997 and proceed from there, if this is acceptable to most folks.

By and by, I carefully reviewed my charts and routes for various trips over the weekend and need to make some corrections to my claims. Believe it or not, until I started posting it never occured to me to look at how far or how long, it was simply not of much personal interest.

#1 I have said elsewhere that I thought the boat had been about 600 miles off-shore. This was incorrect, the actual greatest distance to a point of land (although one I would not consider safe harbor) was 421.2 miles not 600.

#2 The actual longest non-stop transit was 1097 miles in 12 days, 4 hrs.

#3 I have also been asked why I sturred the MAC pot at SA. That one is simple, I intended to bait a MAC basher into a match run to Hawaii. You will never make them go away or shut up, but you might be able to coax them into putting their money where their mouth is and making the run a little more interesting.

[James V]

maddmike - Some of use would like to take an extended cruise and would like "good advice" to make the trip the best that it can be by making a costal cruiser to a "Cruising as a Life Style" cruiser. Thanks for the help.

[Gerald Gordon]

Regarding #31

I understand there are over 1000 Mac fans on this board. Perhaps board members would be interested in putting up some $$$ and back maddmike in his mac against some SA boat Cal to Honolulu race.

[maddmike]

Thanks Gordo,
But I really don't want anyone putting up any money (other than me & the SA anti-Mac crowd). I have something with a little more 'Poetic Justice' that involves playing with matches in mind for those guys. For now, I'd like to keep it somewhat low profile. I realize that is not totally possible once the 'Cat is out of the bag', but I don't want those guys droping by other sites and causing trouble because they are head hunting for me. I'm a big boy and can handle things myself & actually know some of the more civilized posters at SA from times past. So Stay low on this. Maddmike

[maddmike]

As a side, I'm not going to start by talking about my trip North from Friday Harbor to the Beauford Sea because other Macs have now done the inside passage to Alaska and on out to Dutch Harbor and thus have described most of the trip in detail. Therefore, in one sentence; after clearing into Canada & the Gulf Islands at Bidwell on May 5, 1997 I eventually arrived at Richards Island on the Mackenzie Delta on the 4th of July. I tried to get out to visit friends and see the Musk Oxen at Sach Harbor on Banks Island, but didn't make it do to weather and ice. Zeno's Arrow's most Northern point reached was 24 miles South of Banks Island. After this I turned South and headed for Tuktayakyuk and continued on south until reaching South America.
\
The Mackenzie Route (which I will describe as we continue this thread).
Beauford Sea
Richards Island
Tuktakyaktuk (sp?)
Inuvik (and the South Channel)
Arctic Red River
Fort Good Hope (Exploring the Little Chicago & 'The Inuit Boy' Rescue)
Norman Wells (making friends)
Tulita (and Great Bear Lake)
Fort Simpson (and Exploring the Liard River to Beaver Dam)
Fort Providence & Great Slave Lake.

This by the way,as long as they have a car & trailer waiting in Inuvik is a trip any MAC can do in reverse order i.e downstream, (which I will explain later).

All for now, Cheers
Maddmike

[waternwaves]

Mike...........

Wouldnt it be more fun with two macs in the trip to Hawaii???

[Gerald Gordon]

By all means. A single Mac on a voyage of Capt. Cooke type proportions could benefit from safety in numbers.

[Bill at BOATS 4 SAIL]

Hi madmike - Post a mailing address (and a name that will work for you) and I'll send you a check to help with expenses.
I'm sure others on this site will too.