FIRST DAY OUT!

[corkscrew]

Ok, just got back from my first day out on my 97 MacX! I didn't sink it! All went fairly well, thanks to a lot of info I've gotten on this forum....THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!

Hit Charlestown, MD today clear, light wind, wednesday morning so no-one near the boat ramp...which saved me...as things took forever! Found about 10 stupid things that wasted about 45 minutes....but the real time killer was raising the mast and attaching the forestay.

Ok, did this twice, once in a parking lot and once at the dock. Same issues both times.......

Even with the optional mast raising bar, it's pretty difficult to raise and lower the mast alone. Next problem was attaching the forestay to the bow of the boat...took two of us about 20 minutes. Appears to always be about an inch too short. Tried un-tentioning the aft stay and it helped...but only with two peaple putting every ounce of strength into it.

I really must be doing something wrong. Is there some tricks I am missing. Even in the macgregor rigging video, the guy does it alone, with ease (and no video cuts) in about 2 minutes. The optional mast raising system, doesn't do much either....again unless I am missing something....could only get it so far and then had to have one person on the systems and the other pushing the mast up.

Other then these two things all went great! My big fears, trailering in and trailering out were almost no-brainers. VERY EASY IN/OUT. Just backed in to rear tires...boat begins to float....tied off on the dock, released the winch, and pulled away...boat went in fine. COming in was VERY easy except trying for the first time to guide the boat to the dock....hard as hull...but got along the dock in about 5 minutes. Getting boat onto trailer VERY EASY!!!!...I thought I'd have to use the engine...but I didn't at all.

Basically drove the boat to the dock and tied up. Backed the trailer down to the point that the rear guides were still sticking out. Literally, used a rope and pulled the whole boat myself...with almost no effort onto the trailer and tied it up. Backed the trailer down a few more feet then winched it on. Easy as pie.

Turns out the thing I thought would be the hardest were the easiest and the things i thought would be cake were the ones that wasted tons of time.

ANy tips or mods on the mast raising and attaching the forestay would be very much appreciated. Also any tips on guiding a boat to a dock would be helpful as well.

THANKS ALL!

[March]

We solved the mast raising issue by having my buddy crank up the mast-raising unit really hard (it has two blocks in our configuration--the rope goes around the winch which makes it possible to tension it) The other thing that helped was a rope tied above the furler, with a loop at the other end. The rope goes over the pulpit. By stepping into the loop and pressing hard, the mast flexes just enough to enable me to put the pin through. On the other hand, once the mast is in place, it is really TIGHT

Yes, the backstay has to be loose

Have fun! You're in the groove

[K9Kampers]

Corkscrew-
Congrats on your new adventures! The more you do it, the more you learn and the faster and easier it gets. So far, you've only found about half of the "stupid things", and there are a whole bunch of "smart things" to discover as well.

If I may, I'll offer a few ideas that may help the process. 99% of the time I'm sailing alone. 100% of the time, I'm stepping / rigging alone. It really is easy as others will tell & you'll find out.

If you have the "baby stays" or "side stays" - use them. If you don't have them - get them / find them. Mine were laying in the bilge - PO didn't show them to me.

Unless the forestay was replaced and untried before you bought the boat, assume that it is the correct length and look for kinks / twists in the forestay, backstay, and mast stays. Using the mast raising system with cabin top winch, raise the mast to about 70 degrees and secure the line (cleat for safety). Inspect all the stays end to end & chainplates to make sure there are no kinks/twists as just one can give the results you are finding. Continue raising mast and tension a bit beyond to ease securing of clevis pin.

Holding the clevis ring in your teeth while placing the clevis pin will prevent the "F's" & "S's" from being heard by nearby sensitive ears when your sunglasses fall off & go overboard or when you kneel on the anchor hatch latch!

[pokerrick1]

will prevent the "F's" & "S's" from being heard by nearby sensitive ears when your sunglasses fall off & go overboard or when you kneel on the anchor hatch latch!

Sunglasses (gasses del sol)? How about a $450 pair of trifocals I ALMOST dove in after them, but I came to my senses in time (TG) cause I was in over 20 feet of water at the time. GONZO

Rick

[RickJ]

How about a $450 pair of trifocals ::

That's why I always have a neckstrap attached to my specs when on the boat

[RickJ]

Hi corkscrew

Congrats on first sail. I know how you feel, I only started sailing my '97 X a month ago.

I think most points have been made about mast raising. I practiced doing mine (solo) a few times on the driveway over the winter - partly necessity, as I was adding a few mods too.

Make sure the halyard tied to the mast-raising pole is short enough. I left this too long a couple of times, so the raising pole bottomed out on the deck before the mast was fully tensioned forwards. But otherwise, and with nothing twisted and backstay loose, you should be able to get enough forward tension on the mast by using a winch (take 3 turns round) to be able to pin the forestay quite easily. If not then your rig is probably too tight.

A roller-furler makes it a bit harder because it's more difficult to see what you're doing with the pin, and if it's carrying the sail you have the weight trying to pull it back, but I find that by getting my shoulder under it it's still not too hard.

I still have the delights of launch and recovery to experience (it went in by sling crane, the ramp I'm "paying" to use is unserviceable until some extensive ground-work is finished - I get a complementary dock in the meantime!).

Cheers, Rick

[corkscrew]

Thanks for all the ideas. Winch for the mast raising system? I don't have this....just been pulling it by hand??? Basically I tie the halyard line to the raising bar and cleat it off on the mast....is this wrong? A wich sounds like a good Idea.

Also, what are your thoughts on this? Creating an attachment for the forestay that has a turnbuckle on it I can tension? It would allow me to attach it somewhat loose (giving me that extra inch to attach, then crank up the tension). Any thoughts? What kind of strength tolerences would I have to make sure it have? 1000 lb's?

Thoughts.....

My three most notable STUPID things were........

1.) Remember to bring the key for the lock on the cabin door. Keeps you from driving to the walmart for a hacksaw.

2.) Take off the boat/trailer straps BEFORE putting it in the water!

3.) Undo the saftey chain on the bow/winch prior to drooping it in so there no tension on the chain.

Just these three things would have saved me probably 45 minutes. I feel very stupid.

[bastonjock]

Hi Corkscrew,its a buzz that first time sailing,im still feeling it from mine,with regard to the mast raising winch, i run the line from the mast raising pole,through my jib blocks and back to the winch at the companionway,make sure that the babystays are attached and just crank it up,stop every now and then,take a look at the rigging to ensure that it is not catching on anything.

another thing that you can do to make things easier is to fit a lever to the jib/genoa furler,there are photos in the mods section showing this.

[hart]

2.) Take off the boat/trailer straps BEFORE putting it in the water!

I'm laughing my butt off on this one. I've done that before on two different boats. Yep, took me twice to learn that lesson.

[parrothead]

Winch for the mast raising system? I don't have this....just been pulling it by hand??? Basically I tie the halyard line to the raising bar and cleat it off on the mast....is this wrong? A wich sounds like a good Idea.

If you didn't get a manual with the boat, click on the "Manuals" link on the left side of this page, and then on the link to the manual. If you have a "mast raising bar", I suspect that it's the same system, even if your boat is of a different year. Essentially, you use the jib winch to do the heavy lifting, and you should be able to apply enough tension to enable you to cleat the line coming off the winch and go forward to attach the forestay.

If you don't have the optional mast raising equipment, I'd highly recommend purchasing the setup for the , as it has a brake winch mounted right on the pole - so you can do everything from the foredeck.

[opie]

Hey, someone out there with Youtube experience. Please make a video of several methods of mast raising!!
I am 60, not all that althletic, and with no back problems. As you can find on a search of the archives here, I and others have written bunches about how we do the mast raising. As for me, I do it by hand and back, without the baby stays and mast raising system. I'll save that until I am 70 or so. All my shrouds and backstay are tight to regulations.
The secret to get the forestay pinned is to put a forward rake on the mast. I do that by tying a line extension to the jib halyard and running it over the bolt at the pulpit and tying it off at the mast after shouldering the mast to the foreward rake. No problems. I keep a full 150% genoa on the furler as well. Yeah, it is heavy, but as the Macgregor original video shows, if you use the entire sliding hatchcover and your legs, it is not hard. I even did the mast-lowering exercise to go under a bridge on Lake Wylie (SC) last week to get to a part of the lake that seldom sees sailboats. I anchored and had the mast in the cradle in 15 minutes and had it back up on the other side of the bridge in 12 minutes.
At the ramp, I have the complete raising up/down, including tying everything for the highway, to 35 to 45 minutes (except 1 hour+ for the first time of the season as I forget everything learned last season. haha)

[K9Kampers]

Corkscrew-

I believe there are previous postings regarding the forstay turnbuckle idea that you are proposing, but I encourage you to first take a closer look at your existing rigging before making an unnecessary mod.

If you have an owners manual for the boat, study the pics & text on mast raising. I'll have to assume (hope) that you have the mast raising system set up properly, and yes, the halyard that attaches to the end of the mast raise pole does cleat to the mast. I cleat mine so the pole is just less than 90 degrees to the mast, so that when the mast is raised, I can tension the system some more, giving the forestay (roller furler) enough slack to easily insert the clevis pin.

The winches we are refering to are the ones either side of the companionway hatch, used to trim the forsail (jib / genoa). You do have these, don't you?! The winch is an easy & safe way to tension the line of the mast raise system & not have the issue you're dealing with.

Sometimes I singlehandedly raise the mast without the mast raising system. Baby stays must be on first. With the mast down, I'll tie a safety line around the mast in a loop, attach the halyard to it, take in & secure the halyard to put the loop of the safety line up to the just beneath the mast spreaders. Lift & walk up the mast, bring the safety line to a forward cleat, tension & secure the line. Insert clevis pin of forestay / RF. Release halyard & pull down safety line. Works on land & water - saves 10 minutes - jsut don't bust-a-nut lifting the mast!

If you don't have an owners manual, I might be able to scan / fax one to you. There may also be an online link to download one as well!?

[Carl Noble]

Corkscrew, one other detail. When you are winching the mast up you should not feel any resistance. If you do, stop winching and check your shrouds & backstay. They will be hung up on something.

[corkscrew]

question....the pin that holds the forestay in place....were can you get a replacement? If it's just a standard pin....what type of weight should it be graded at? few hundred pounds?

I figure the major weight pull...pushign forward puts all the stress on the backstay and the main mast bolt....so I would assume that the stresses on the forestay and it's pins are in the 200-300 lbs range...if that??

[Kelly Hanson East]

That pin messes a lot of people - on the at least its a 6mm - a 1/4 inch pin wont quite fit.

Take a 1/4 inch drill and remove exactly 314um of metal by running it through. Now that 1/4 inch pin will fit exactly.