celebrating 20 years of Mac ownership

[dlandersson]

Because you're smart?

Hi All!

Didn’t mean to exclude any Mac26M owners ….. it’s just that “ours” happens to be a Mac26X.
🫣

Best Reagards,
Over Easy

[Herschel]

Just got a text with a pic today from my slip mate who is a live aboard. She saw a bat crawling into my mainsail cover. Here we go again!

[NiceAft]

[Russ]

Is there any way to seal that up to prevent entrance?

Or some kind of deterrent? Pepermint????

[Herschel]

Is there any way to seal that up to prevent entrance?

Or some kind of deterrent? Peppermint????

Well, I had a plan to raise the main and just take the cover off for a while with a tarp secured to the lifelines/stanchions to protect it from bird poop. When I got up to the boat today, there was a storm coming up, so I just detached the boom and sail from the mast, sheet, downhaul and boom kicker and stowed in in the trailer position in the bow port side. As I pulled the cover off, the bat flew away. Fortunately it was just one bat. It's droppings were few, so it had not been there long. I'm dealing with a leaky front window as well, so I had to take my V berth cushions off and cover them with the tarp. After 20 years of ownership of a 25 year old boat (and me reaching 80), it all about "doing the next most important thing." I think I'll check with BWY and see if they have the boom attached/zip up at the top/lazy jacks rig I see on the YouTuber's yachts. That looks like it might be something that would be relatively bat proof. And new seals for the window, too.

[LordElsinore]

I have one of those "boom attached/zip up at the top/lazy jacks rig" sail pack from BWY. I like it a lot, but it's not without any gaps or openings. I'm sure a clever bat could still find a way in if it really wanted to, but it would be mostly closed off

[Herschel]

I have one of those "boom attached/zip up at the top/lazy jacks rig" sail pack from BWY. I like it a lot, but it's not without any gaps or openings. I'm sure a clever bat could still find a way in if it really wanted to, but it would be mostly closed off

Interesting. I was hopeful it would be pretty tightly zipped up. Do you have a couple of picks of what your "boom attached/zip up at the top/lazy jacks rig" looks like and where the gaps might be?

[LordElsinore]

Do you have a couple of picks of what your "boom attached/zip up at the top/lazy jacks rig" looks like and where the gaps might be?

My mast is currently down, but here are some quick pictures of what I see as greater-than-bat-size gaps

This first one is looking down from above on the forward end of the boom near where the mast goes. The mast does take up some of the space on the left, but the space above the white sail in the picture, between the mast and where the zipper stops would be exposed



This next one shows the space between the sail bag and the forward end of the boom. Again, the mast would pass through on the left, but there is about a foot of space along the forward end of the boom that does not attach to the bolt rope groove of the boom. Gravity would cause the bag to be resting on the boom, so maybe that would be minimized, but certainly possible for a critter to wiggle in there.



This last one shows the aft end of the boom - a gap between the boom and the sailbag because the bolt rope of the sailbag does not continue all the way to the end. This is good for stuffing lines and things in, but probably doesn't help keeping curious bats out.



All that said, I do really like the MacStack bag BWY sells. My only complaint is that the long battens that run the length of it have pushed a hole in the ends and can come out, but I can probably reinforce that. And possibly you could modify it to be more bat proof. I just didn't want to see you spend money on it assuming it would totally seal off the area. I think my factory mainsail cover can more fully enclose everything than this does.

[Herschel]

Those pics are really helpful, and your advice is extremely pertinent. You are right. It may be a great advantage for rigging, but it is not a bat barrier. My worst bat story was finding 5 bats living in the black cover of my Magma gas grill. The thought of eating any thing associated with that grill was repugnant, so I just shooed them away, unscrewed it from the stanchion, and threw it in the garbage.

[Starscream]

Today we are celebrating 15years of MacOwnership. My daughter was 15 years old, my boys were 3,1 and unborn when we bought her.

Our earliest family photo with the boat, on Reservoir Baskatong in Quebec:


Now just my boys left at home. Crazy how they used to sleep all 3 in the V-berth, with pillows holding them in place, and now they're just huge lumps of young man. They've grown up travelling on the boat, and it's helped make them the responsible, adventurous, family-oriented "kids" that they are.



And the new generation starts early...my grand-daughter on her first "bear hunt".

[NiceAft]

Love that last shot

[Russ]

How cool to see your fam grow up on the boat.
We have just one and he now take the boat out on his own.

[LordElsinore]

Starscream, what is that tube thing hanging part way up your backstay in that photo? A light of some kind?

[Starscream]

Starscream, what is that tube thing hanging part way up your backstay in that photo? A light of some kind?

It's a radar reflector like this one. It's a requirement in Canada unless you're daylight/good weather, although most people ignore this (as they do black-balling when at anchor or black coning when motor sailing).

https://www.entrepotmarinemart.com/en/b ... 7EQAvD_BwE

I think AIS is probably more useful than this, as any boat with radar would certainly see me on the AIS if my boat had no radar detector.

[Herschel]

Great shot of your family and such a good reflection about family activities together. Congrats on the 15 years of ownership, as well. As much as I love my boat at the 20 year mark, I do ponder if there is a young family out there that could get more use out of it than I do. At 80 I get out about once a month with either my wife, my brother, or a friend. More in the cooler months of the year. Taking it one year at a time a this point, but you are right, we have had many great family experiences aboard through the years. My family has been just a little older. Here are some shots of my granddaughter, Haley, now 14, and her mom, Ginny, enjoying some cabin time and getting frisky topside on the St. Johns River in Florida, my son, Kip, and I on Lake Allatoona in Georgia a few years ago, and more recently, my brother, Marty and niece, Katherine, on Lake Monroe here in Florida. These boats do bring families closer together. They are worth the effort despite bats and the myriad of challenges we frequently face. Thanks for the reminder.