MacGregorSailors.com

I just bought a 1991 Macgregor 26S out of PA and trailered it back to Illinois. Boat had been sitting for about a year and was quite dirty so the first thing I did was powerwash and scrub the deck and hull and sponge down the interior with a mixture of soap and bleach. She looks pretty darn good now.

I've never sailed in my life but I've been looking for a Mac 26 for about a year now. And any advice you could throw my way for the first time out would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome! You might want to review the manuals posted under "Resources" here on the forum in order to familiarize yourself with the 'right way' to set up and sail a Mac. There are also a ton of videos on YouTube as well.

Fire away with questions you my have - this is a friendly and helpful crowd here on the forum.

In addition, you might want to find the nearest Coast Guard Auxillary sailing safety course. There is more to this than raising a sail and looking for wind There are rules of the water.

Ray

P.S. Welcome. You have found a place here, where there is much wisdom about Mac's

I'm on the south side of Chicago. You can tweak your profile to include your location. Makes it easier for others to give relevant advice.

FLGSHP7 wrote:I just bought a 1991 Macgregor 26S out of PA and trailered it back to Illinois. Boat had been sitting for about a year and was quite dirty so the first thing I did was powerwash and scrub the deck and hull and sponge down the interior with a mixture of soap and bleach. She looks pretty darn good now.

I've never sailed in my life but I've been looking for a Mac 26 for about a year now. And any advice you could throw my way for the first time out would be greatly appreciated.

Looks like a nice rig!

I noticed when putting up the mast that the forestay had a few strands broken at the top where it connects to the mast. Given the importance of this component I'll probably just pull it down and replace it now. I've been lurking purplesagetradingpost for some time now and I saw the way Sumner redid his standing rigging. His new forestay setup looked good. I'm thinking about going that route. I have a CDI furler.

FLGSHP7 wrote:I noticed when putting up the mast that the forestay had a few strands broken at the top where it connects to the mast. Given the importance of this component I'll probably just pull it down and replace it now.

Good idea. This is a common failure point, not just on Macs, but all sailboats. Use the best hardware, renew anything that looks even remotely suspect, and check it regularly.

I had a question about mast raising.

When the owner showed me how to do it with the MRS he attached the jin pole to the whisker track on the front of the mast and had his baby stays running off the jin pole and no baby stays on the mast. It was incredibly unstable and I knew something was amiss.

Looking at pictures of other mast raisings I see some people attaching the jin pole to the jib halyard. Can I do that with my genoa attached? And also, where do the baby stays attach to the mast?

Please excuse any incorrect terminology. I'm very new to this and learning on the fly.

I just took down the mast again and took some pictures of the forestay shroud and it was far worse then I thought. I counted 8 broken strands. I'm glad I didnt take it out! That would have been expensive.





Now I'm trying to determine what route I should go for replacement. I know Sumner went to a 5/32 316 Stainless. Can I increase line diameter only on the forestay?

He also added a Johnson Lever and that changed the height of the forestay shroud on the mast. I'm not opposed to doing all that but I don't want to get myself into a project that will consume the summer and sailing weather.

If you were in this situation what would you do?

Your lucky you spotted that, if I found that I would be replacing all the shrouds, I have seen one broken strand turn into only only a couple holding a couple of minutes even in very light winds.

If that mast comes tumbling down its not only expensive but very dangerous to you, your crew and the boat, its not unusual for a mast coming down to swing out and hole the boat.

You have to ask if there are broken stands on one bit of rigging and the rest is about the same age then how far away are the others??

Use 1 x 19 ss wire, its the stiffest but strongest

I just bought a new stay from BWY. Easy and quick. I do, however, always rig my spinaker halyard as a back up stay.

If you were in this situation what would you do?

First, welcome aboard and congrats on the new boat. I have a '98X that has been almost entirely kept in fresh water (Lake Clair, MI and Lake Monroe, FL). I replaced my forestay about four years ago simply because I did not know what condition it might be in internally. I had the tech at West Marine rigging cut the old forestay and check its condition. It was good so I held off on replacing the rest of the shrouds. My plan is to slowly replace them starting next year regardless of how they look. I'll do one at a time and have the old ones cut and checked. That is my strategy for dealing with this issue with a boat approaching 20 years of age. If I were in your situation with a boat (nice as it is), that is already 20 years old and with a forestay in that condition, I would consider that a red flag and replace all the shrouds. The peace of mind that can come from doing what you need to do to insure safety for your self and crew is worth every penny of the cost. But, if you are like me---of limited means---I would be considering just replacing the rigging as is and worry about improvements at a future date. But that is me. One step at a time. But that way you avoid "mission creep" and projects that eat up more of precious sailing time that you have.

When you put that head stay back make sure that top eye can move a bit. You do not want the wire as it exits the eye to be the component that moves. It will bend the wire back and forth and quickly break it .
Ix

Thanks for the input fellas. I looked at the rest of the standing rigging and it all looks to be in very good condition. Like it's been replaced within the last few years. I would have to assume that the forestay shroud takes a lot of abuse from being trailered and thrown around when lowering the mast from the weight of the Genoa. I think I'll continue with replacing only the forward stay.

Now, on to the big questions. I want to install a Johnson quick release and increase the line size and move the forestay further up the mast for better clearance under the genoa.

The first step will be to remove the whole assembly(forestay wire, furler, genoa. all of that.)

The genoa is looking a bit old around the edges so I'm not sure I want to replace it this year but possibly next year.

I'll have to take the genoa and furler off and that should leave me with the tube that the forestay slides through.

Cut the stay lock off of the bottom of the forestay line and attach a snake and pull it through.

With the cable out, measure it and send measurements to whomever makes the new one.

Pull the new cable through(does the new cable have a stay lock already installed?)

And re attach to new mount up the mast.

So how do I take a measurement considering I'm moving the forestay up?

Am I on the right track here?

A bit off track - but I'd replace the trailer tires unless you know they were puchased in the last year or so. Having a flat on the side of the road is no fun.