slip opportunity hard to come by...

[ALX357]

well after a long wait, a 24 foot slip has become available to me...
[no dry storage, on trailer mast-up available there, which would have been my preference.]
(1) I have no bottom paint at all, no barrier coat, zip, zero.... how urgent is the need to barrier and anti-foul the hull before i see problems.?
The amount of sailing i can get in will increase HUGELY, not having the hitch,tow,rig and launch process in front of every outing. I will be able to sail after work for a few hours, have people meet me at the boat and leave immediately for excursions, etc. These seem to me now a luxury, and the reason i bought the boat to begin with. But the commercial bottom job with barrier coats etc. will factor in at near half again the cost of the slip per month (130) and the alternative is for me to paint it myself. ( me carpenter, no painter ) and i know what a PITA it is to shift the boat around, while putting on .... say, 4 coats of stuff on the hull and centerboard.

(2) Also, i presently have a bilge pump, not attached, no float switch, just loose for occasional bailing, seldom necesary, but if slipped in the water for extended time, i would need to rig an attached, float switched pump set-up. Since there are actually several isolated bilges, due to the integral ballast tank, I wonder if there is a optimal location, maybe the deepest one, which would collect the other bilge overflows and keep the boat from swamping, even if the other bilge areas did have water up to their limit ? Seems a bit of overkill to have numerous pumps, although maybe a back-up would be good in one other bilge area.
Where are the two best locations for bilge pumps with float switches, that could work independly, or together, and catch the most bilge water. ??

[Chip Hindes]

The way I see it, the idea that a several gpm bilge pump is going to save my Mac from sinking is counterintuitive. I have three small bilge pumps in my X, controlled by a single on/off, no automatic switch, but they're strictly for the convenience of being able to drain the bilges at the flip of a switch rather than any idea they'd be used to keep the boat from sinking, under any operating condition.

Unless you've penetrated the hull below the waterline in some fashion with (in my book) ill advised modifications, the only water that's likely to come into your boat when you're not underway is leakage from rain. I once calculated it out and forget the results, they're here on the board somewhere, but I seem to remember even if you left the hatches open, it would take about ten feet of continuous rain to sink a Mac.

On the other hand, if the hull is holed below the waterline, say from a collision while you're not there, it's likely that any but the tiniest of holes will overwhelm any single bilge pump. If you don't have shore power and a built in charger, you need to be concerned that even a hole within the capablity of the pump, if it remained undiscoverd for an extended period, could kill your battery anyway.

I could definitely be wrong. I'd be interested to know if anyone on this board has any experience or knowledge of a Mac sinking at a mooring or slip, or better yet, of an automatic bilge pump preventing such a sinking.

If it makes you feel better to have one anyway, the best location for a single pump is at the lowest point, under the cooler liner next to the centerboard trunk. This will drain water entering from either side of the trunk once it rises above a few inches, and water from either of the beam locations will eventually get high enough to overflow the stringers into the center section and be pumped out. There'll still be quite a lot of water left in the boat, but not nearly enough to sink it.

BTW, what I have done is leave the ballast valve open and the front plug out while sailing, and managed to take on enough water through the open vent hole that upon discovery of my stupidity, it it took me nearly 50 minutes of pumping into a bucket with the Thirsty Mate hand pump, then emptying the bucket into the cockpit. My three bilge pumps, if I had them at the time, would have made short work of that exercise.

[Catigale]

ALX

I slip in the Hudson River, fresh water, and have a similar bilge pump arrangement to chip. WIth no through hulls, the chances of accidental flooding at slip are low.

...and of course, the Mac doesnt sink, it swamps...

On bottom paint, are you in fresh water? I havent painted the bottom at all and have been in for four seasons without any ill effects. I wax each sping.

YMMV

[ALX357]

......no bottom at all, just wax ??
maybe the Hudson is sterilized, but i think these lakes on the Tennessee, Cumberland and Stones Rivers are soupy with Zebra Mussels, algea and slymes. Boats here grow long beards at the waterline in just a couple of months.
But maybe Mac had gotten the gelcoat tight to the fiberglass by the 2000 year, and osmotic blisters are a thing of the past ???

[Catigale]

It might be a temperature effect. The Hudson doesnt start to get warm until July August or so. We certainly have zebras but they dont attach to boats..I think they like water flow more than anything else.

[Chuck Healey]

It seems like what your paying for a slip is pretty reasonable. Where I am on lake Winnipesaukee in NH. I would be paying $3,500 to $4,000 a year for a slip if I could find one available, and that's for a 6 month season at best. I currently leave it on the trailer, mast up, at a launch ramp for $850. I agree that having a slip would be far more convienant. I would be able to get in a few hours sailing here and there, where I would't bother otherwise. I know a lot of people who don't have bottom paint up here and they don't seem to have any problems leaving the boat in the slip for a season. Ofcourse it might be different with the colder water up North.

[Tom Spohn]

ALX,
Better to put on the bottom paint, but don't paint the centerboard or rudders. You won't need the bilge pump if you are careful to close up the boat when you leave it at the end of the day, and you have taken care of the usual places rainwater leaks into the X. Like the base plates on the shrouds. M's leak far less.

[Catigale]

I thought the blue hull idea came from seeing lots of Ms full of water..