MacGregorSailors.com

For the first 10 years or so that I owned my 1996 I used it primarily under sail. I added a full Dowsar enclosure in 2003. Now I find that I spend most of my time cruising the historic waterways in Ontario Canada. Since minimum bridge clearance is only 22 feet, I leave the mast at home. In this mode, the Dowsar enclosure has some limitations. The slanted transition piece between the top of the bimini and the top of the dodger limited forward and side visibility during bad weather. This winter I modified portions of the enclosure to make it more suitable for all weather powerboating.

An extra stainless bow was added forward of the dodger and a new horizontal transition piece was added. The side transition curtains were also replaced. I three piece wrap-around provides great forward visibility and excellent sight lines from the helm. There is also standing headroom throughout the entire cockpit.

The unused original panels were preserved so that it is easy to convert back to sail mode when required.

I also added a steaming light with a new bracket that connects to the mast step and uses the existing steaming light connector on deck.

When I bought the boat I didn't think that I would do anything but sail. However, it's great to know that when situations change, the lives up to it's claims of being a half decent powerboat.

Hey Spirit!

Nice setup!

If you will allow me to digress..

Being almost eight years old how has your Dowsar enclosure stood up over the years? Are the windows still clear? Have you used anything to preserve them (ie Klear-to-Sea)? Is the canvas still good? Did it get constant sun exposure all summer? Still happy with it? Just wondering what I can do to, and what I can expect from, mine.

Regards - Brian.

ps. The Trent-Severn is on our list as well.

Got your pm, thanks. I tried to reply but my pm's often "jam up" in my outbox. Thanks for the advice. Fair winds - Brian.

seahouse wrote:I tried to reply but my pm's often "jam up" in my outbox. Thanks for the advice. Fair winds - Brian.

PM's remain in the outbox until the recipient picks them up. It is a little different from email. Some people never know when they get a PM, because they have disabled pop-up notification and have not enabled email notification. Both of these features are accessible from your User Control Panel

~Rich