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Sorry for the post, just excited to be finally getting on the water! She's been cleaned, rewired(mostly) and the instruments mounted. Going to raise sails one more time on dry land and then, weather permitting, take out my X on our maiden voyage!!!Woohoo

congradulations on the splash. lets us know how it goes.

Did you do the rewiring youself? thats one big job (got the Tee shirt for it)

Jim

Yea, did the wiring myself...still have all the fiberglass rashes to prove it the hardest one was the front nav light because they(Macgregor) had taped all the forward wires together with masking tape and they wanted to come out in bulk. I reached under the liner and was able to remove that tape, then it was much easier.... tough job, but, it's nice to know I have good stuff in there now instead of speaker wire

Congratulations on your X, rewiring can be a real pain, then comes the upgrades

Enjoy yor sail.

Glenn

Congratulations, and fair winds on the "first sail" !!

If the ballast is filled, and bilge is dry...you're 99.999% ready to raise the canvas ...

Have Fun !

I'm soooooooooooooo envious! Best of luck and weather on your first sail. Let us know how you fair and post some pics.

Allan

Congrats on all the hard work and enjoy!

I will post how it went! T minus one! just need to get the weather to hold...

Where out of the Ocean State are you sailing?

Look to cruise up to your area via Block Island making for New Bedford next summer.

BTW, nothing like a first sail....it just takes lots of toothpaste to remove the sea salt after grinning so much!

"Sub" Ed

Upper Narragansett Bay area...

We want to go to Block Island too. What part of Long Island? we have relatives in Merrick. This year, or next, to New Bedford?

Thanks for the tip, I'll go get more toothpaste

South shore, Moriches/Mastic area just west of the Hamptons.
Unfortunatley we're best known as the spot where TWA Flight 800 went down.

Block Island-New Bedford is scheduled for summer 2010. A good week aboard LAIKA for my son and I.

Setting us up for a Bahama run in 2011 as his High School Graduation father/son trip.

"Sub" Ed

Sounds like a couple nice trips coming up for you! The Bahama run sounds awesome.

She floats!! And more importantly, she was still floating when I took her back out.. Rigged up in parking lot...gonna need one of you close to me to take a peek...had a really hard time getting the forstay pinned, even with slack on the backstay... Well, we went out to Narragansett Bay and the bay was like glass! No sailing , but, I did give the motor a good run It gets so much better gas mileage than my ex-old express cruiser with twin Crusaders I had to replace 5 gallons after cruising up and down the bay. Gonna go out next weekend and try the sails...El Cacahuete has never, ever, been sailed...hope to rectify that soon...Was trying to explain the MacGregor thing to my friend who crewed for me and told him that he may get some remarks..I did get three remarks yesterday, two "nice rig" and one "that's a fancy looking sailboat" After reading SA, I was ready for the nasties to come out and try and pick on my boat..lol... Howevermost importantly is that I LOVE it after the initial shakedown, just can't wait now until I get her under sail!!!!!

bjmeunier wrote:After reading SA, I was ready for the nasties to come out and try and pick on my boat..lol...

Don't worry about that. That is an unusual group of weirdos who only view sailing as a racing experience. Yes, the Mac is not a J boat or a Mastercraft, it is a compromise boat. In my experience it's been 100% positive. People in my marina have given me countless compliments. We've truly enjoyed the Mac and I've owned other "real" sailboats and "real" powerboats.
Enjoy the boat and I'm envious that you are able to think about sailing. We pulled our boat for the season last week.

--Russ

bjmeunier

when you are using the mast raising pole.......start it with the pole between 80 to 85 degree angle to the back deck. This will allow just enough tension on the backstay to overtravel Mast/forestay enough to get the pin in easily with one person.