What Is Up With The Gate Latches (Hasp) On Our Macs?

[Ixneigh]

Far far faaaarrrrrr away on the tidal marshes Far away from anyone with deeper draft you don't have to worry about latches cause there just Ain't anyone around. I looked at every boat offered including the coveted rk 26 and the Mac has the least draft for the least buck and looks nice. Spent much of my life sailing on traditional what not and it was time for a change. The rk was very nice and better built (ahhhhh coremat and triax music to my ears) but would not motor fast.
This is NO boat currently sold that does what the Mac does even if you forget the price. Hunter draws more and is barely trailerable. And no way at my "ramp"! rk26 won't power fast. A feature that was not important
at first but I like an awful lot now. I could have built one myself I suppose. There as no defeciency I can't fix my self at some point. Latch is small potatoes to me being as its secure as any other boat I've owned.
I'll happily look at your new security system though. You could have a cottage industry selling upgraded whatnots for these boats.

Ixneigh

[mrbillfll]

really securing a boat is very very difficult. the best you can hope for is keeping honest people honest.

when people want large outboards down here, they normally just take the entire boat, and pull the engines and electronics then dump the hull.

send me a PM and I'll tell you how the pro crooks do it today... and you will be most discouraged.

insurance, and making your boat harder than your neighbors are your best bets.

[Divecoz]

I agree Bill..... I saw what I assume ( by the destruction left behind..) what was apparent to me.... to be a Chain Saw ....that was used to cut out.... several Large HP outboards.. 2 pickups.. 3 or 4 guys an A frame stiff arm with a hand winch that would swivel? and a BIG pair of cable cutters.. 3 boats destroyed 3 Expensive motors gone Never to be seen again..

really securing a boat is very very difficult. the best you can hope for is keeping honest people honest.

when people want large outboards down here, they normally just take the entire boat, and pull the engines and electronics then dump the hull.

send me a PM and I'll tell you how the pro crooks do it today... and you will be most discouraged.

insurance, and making your boat harder than your neighbors are your best bets.

[capncarp]

Gary,
Learn to love your Mac for what it is. Not what it isn't. I bought my X new in 99 and love it more each year. As stated prior " a Mac is a canvas". Mine is now a masterpiece.
capncarp, 99

[Boblee]

Just goes to show even a topic like this that I thought had no value can make you look a bit further, looking at the boat this morning, it would be a breeze to just lift/spring the sliding hatch cover to get in no tools needed, the latch is the least of your worries but it satisfies for insurance.

[GaryMayo]

Just goes to show even a topic like this that I thought had no value can make you look a bit further, looking at the boat this morning, it would be a breeze to just lift/spring the sliding hatch cover to get in no tools needed, the latch is the least of your worries but it satisfies for insurance.

No value??, I am covered in cutoff saw snow for no value!

[seahouse]

Actually, I shopped the Hunter Edge. If you comparably equip a Mac to equal a Hunter, as close as you can come, the Mac ended up being more money, and the Edge could not do what the Mac can do.

A bare-bones Mac will look cheaper than the Hunter because the Hunter offers many features as standard that are not standard equipment on a Mac. We nearly tripled the Mac's base price with added options, and we were only choosing what we thought were bare "essentials" to us. On top of that I figure I'll have another ten grand to go by the time I've accumulated the electronics.

A Hunter Edge would have been much cheaper, if that's what you're comparing. BTW -I do not recall the companionway hatch lock arrangement on a Hunter. Anyone?

- Brian.

[Jamie79]

Ok I'm gonna go ahead and say it, screw a lock a door or whatever! Come on any house built to todays standards and code with the best door is prone to be broken into. Any crook with a 69 dollar battery powered sawzall can get in, brick or vinyl siding. Brick through the crawl space, vinyl straight through the side. It's a boat its gonna be vulnerable deal with it. Quit bashing these boats for having bad locks my dad had a 28 ft wellcraft no lock, my uncle a 26ft bayliner no lock, get over it.

[GaryMayo]

Who is boat bashing??, several people here admit the gate latch is what it is. If you love gate latches, by all means, ignore this well meaning thread.

My mod is about half done. A misplaced tool has hindered my progress. I am off to the hardware store in the A M

I look at the silly latch as just that, a silly latch.

I have a semi trailer that someone broke into because I had all the doors padlocked closed. Live and learn. I sealed the doors shut from the inside, and the main door, I now lock with this. Never got broken into again.



My mod will be easy to re-key yourself in ten seconds, say if you want to loan the boat out one weekend, but do not want to loan it out every weekend. I decided to put on two deadbolts. Mostly because it helps hold the added panels in place, as well as give it a balanced, well secure look. Between the two locks, I ordered a pair of 16" Grab Handles, one for the door, and one for the sliding hatch. The added Stainless Steel will actually add strength to the panels.

I promise you all a You Tube video of it tomorrow. As much as I poked fun at the gate latch, you can all poke fun at me if you want.

[Catigale]

That red metal is impressive, but couldn't I just crowbar off those u shackles and release the door by bending the pins out?

[GaryMayo]

That red metal is impressive, but couldn't I just crowbar off those u shackles and release the door by bending the pins out?

I think the one thing it does do is make bolt cutters useless. Other semi trailers are easier targets. Pretty heavy construction, I could not bend it with a crowbar. Newer ones use hockey puck locks, even better because it is easy to re-key.

Thought about hockey puck locks for the boat lock, but seemed to industrial.

(how many people just reading every other word will think the red lock is my new sailboat lock?) I can hear it now. lol

[K9Kampers]

That red metal is impressive, but couldn't I just crowbar off those u shackles and release the door by bending the pins out?

Not with your compact crowbar from Defender that was 1/3 the price and fits into the onboard toolbox!!

[Catigale]

Thats an expandable crowbar !!!

[Ixneigh]

I can buy a portable torch kit from harbor fright for less the three hundred bucks and be through the lock the door and whatever else in three seconds and with little noise. And I'm going to wonder what the heck is in there that's worth an impressive lock. Must be something good!!

[GaryMayo]

Is it a rope, or a line, or a sheet, or a .... I don't always know the difference.

Is it fore or aft, port or starboard, bow or stern.... I have to stop and think.

For you guys that know everything, or that 80% that is learned real fast and the last 20% comes over a lifetime, I doubt I will ever get that 80%. I am not that sharp.

Maybe that is why when I first looked over the side of my Mac while it was sitting in the grass for sale at the marina, one thing I did notice was that gate latch. It looked all bent up like someone had been jimmying on it. On second look, I saw it was all bent up by whomever installed it, trying to make something not quite, good enough.

Well, as the weeks went on, and I am slowly learning my this from that, forcing knowledge into my head (not easy learning new tricks at 55 when you are not pushing full compression in all cylinders) that gate latch, with the pitiful upside down and backwards attempt to perform the function it was assigned to do, started to haunt me.

Why, I do not know? Maybe it is the only level I can perform at 80% on the boat, because I do know a little about building, construction, art, craftsmanship, and locksmithing.

So as my first mod of a MacGregor sailboat I hope to show what can be done with an obvious problem that everyone seems to have overlooked, or just has not bothered with.

On a side note, I have 99% walked away from the X deal I was working on. Like the boat, the engine options, a 2000 8hp that came with the boat is just too small, and an upgrade offer from the dealer that is still on another boat (60hp) is too old and possibly tired as it is a 1998 that does not seem able to pull skiers according to the current owner of the boat that also has it mounted to an X

I have taken the advice of a poster in this thread to also look at other makes of sailboats. Currently looking at a Hunter 25.5 with wheel steering. Also looking at a Mac 19. The more one looks you soon realize the world is blanketed with sailboats for sale.

Thanks everyone for putting up with me.