Just bought Mac 26S

[Barnacle Jim]

Ahoy,

Thanks so much! Let's see if I can get the hang of bucket and chuck it.

Here are three meager photos. Well, that did not seem to work; let's see if I can modify the rigging.



Now, that's a bit better. Let's try the other two now.





Yes, I will need to work on the tiller, or maybe just make another one. I have a few boards of teak somewhere. Maybe I can make a louvered door for the head out of mahogany; that should look nautical enough.

Autohelm
What is this Autohelm? This equipment is mounted on starboard cabin (small white box). The other sailors were pretty excited about it. One said it was a feature usually on blue water cruisers. (No, I do not mean to imply that any of us should suddenly sail across the Pacific in a MacGregor.) Does anyone on the board use Autohelm?




Fair Sailing,

Barnacle Jim

[Barnacle Jim]

Ahoy,

Began removing the oxidation from the hull this morning. I will try and post some photos a bit later. The hull seems to be in excellent condition with only a few defects and scratches. I rather think we might be able to use some auto-paint and cover all of those. I plan to look at the hull in the afternoon light to see what I may have missed, and if everything looks good enough for who it is for, we'll polish the hull.

In the meantime, here is a photo of my faithful and motley crew. As you see, the crew is quite anxious to launch out into the deep. The little one we call Miss Sheba.



Such as it is.

Oh, yes, what is the hole just above the waterline on starboard about midship? It's certainly from the factory; I have not gone inside to inspect; maybe this is for the bilge pump? There is another hole (drain) on the transom (port); I'm sure this is probably for the cockpit.

Barnacle Jim

[paulkayak]

That hole Drains your sink in the galley. Our sink is close to the wall and sometimes when we're healed over hard you see water splashing in the Drain hole so we have to plug it..

[Russ]

Oh, yes, what is the hole just above the waterline on starboard about midship? It's certainly from the factory; I have not gone inside to inspect; maybe this is for the bilge pump? There is another hole (drain) on the transom (port); I'm sure this is probably for the cockpit.

Barnacle Jim

Generally, bilge pump thru hulls are placed high up so when the boat heels it doesn't back fill with water. Trace it down. I bet it's a sink drain.

The boat looks great in the pics.

The mast raising system is based on a pole and leverage. It also depends on 2 "baby stays" or side support lines that attach to the mast to keep it from swinging side to side while raising. See page 10 of the manual here
http://www.macgregorsailors.com/manuals ... l_xxxx.pdf

--Russ

[FishyFabs]

Congrats on the boat!

[Barnacle Jim]

Ahoy,

Thanks everyone for the help and comments. I will be working on the mast raising system in a few days; the gin pole apparently attaches to the base plate (tabernacle) at the foot of the mast. What I would like to do is set up the system that uses the starboard winch with block and tackle. That way Miss Pat could almost raise the mast by herself without ever leaving the cockpit.

Here are some photos of the boat as she is being cleaned up. The former owner really took good care of her. The hull has one or two small scratches, but these should be easily repairable. We were able to use lacquer thinner to rub out some of the scuffs and marks.

In this photo, the hull seems to stand out in marked contrast to the deck with the hull looking a very clean white; the deck, almost a dull cream. I will work on the deck later, at least on the sides of the deck, but not on the non-skid surfaces.



Here is the boat after having been polished. Even from a distance, the hull looks good. Some people may hesitate about buying an older boat, but seeing is believing. With a little elbow grease, the hull looks almost new.



Let's try a close-up of the hull, but looking in the opposite direction. Not bad; indeed, I have had trousers with almost as much shine as the hull.



Well, such as it is; tomorrow I would like to do a little work on that deck. The boat is coming along nicely.

Fair sailing everyone!

Barnacle Jim

[Whipsyjac]

Two Years Before the Mast was a great book!

Nice work on the polishing, I'll have to do that soon but I won't have time before Friday's launch...first of the season for us.

Enjoy your boat!

Willy

[Catigale]

Not bad; indeed, I have had trousers with almost as much shine as the hull.

Lime green shiny leisure suit from the 70s....

Congrats and looking forward to some "on the water shots"

[Barnacle Jim]

Ahoy,

I guess you are right; it has been a couple of years before the mast for me. I have always been two days late and a dollar short. That's been the story of my life.
For those who might be like myself and thinking about a MacGregor, let me say again, "These are nice boats. I really do not think you can go wrong with any of the MacGregor designs." Someone might say that these are not blue water cruisers with a bulbous hull and deep keel. Of course, but try putting something like that on a trailer and pulling it around the country. For us, the MacGregor design was the perfect fit for what we wanted to do, but I digress . . .

This morning as we worked on the coaming, I suddenly began to notice details that were there all along, but were overlooked until I began polishing the hull. The sculpted lines are very nice. Yes, I had seen them before, but also had ignored them. I suppose MacGregor could have designed something purely functional, but he went a step further, giving the boat a nice stacked curve for the coaming. Even near the bow, the coaming seen at the cockpit again emerges but much more quiet, suggesting to me that whoever designed this boat had paid great attention even to small details. These boats are not take the money and run efforts.

For instance, the darkened windows which I had not really thought about until the sun was high in the sky beating down on my head and on the boat. (It gets hot out here in Arizona, really hot.) I had seen the darkened windows all along, but never had really thought much about them until today. One of my dreams has been to sail the coastline of Florida. The sun is hot there, too. Believe when I say, we will appreciate this small touch from Roger MacGregor.

As I polished the coaming today, I noticed the trailer. It's not stock. The former owner had pointed out that he had made the trailer a bit longer, about two feet longer in fact. The hull is supported by a number of bunkboards. I rather like those better than rollers because of the added support to the hull. He really cared for this boat. He really did. As he and his wife told us about their memories of sailing to Catalina Island, Miss Pat and I could not resist, 'When you want to sail to Catalina again, you just take this boat and go. It will be fine with us." Their children are in college now, and they were thinking about making one more trip to Catalina. Here's a photo of the trailer; the added segment probably will not show up very well.



Does anyone know where to buy a MacGregor decal, or is it a thin metal sign near the transom? The one on starboard needs some work, or needs to be replaced. I would like to do that, if I could.


Fair Sailing,

Barnacle Jim

[Barnacle Jim]

Ahoy,

I was able to clean the deck (and non-skid surfaces) yesterday. Here's what worked and what did not. I started using a buffer on the smooth areas which function as borders, marking out one non-skid area from another non-skid area. This approach may work well for the hull, but for me, the buffer created more work than it solved. What did work was a good scrub brush and a deck cleaning product from a marine store. I applied the cleaner, scrubbed the surface, and rinsed. In no time, the entire deck was scrubbed clean. For me, it was a lot easier to work from a ladder than to work from the deck proper. I will polish the smooth border areas by hand a little later. The buffer did a good job on the hull, but not on the deck.

Those especially stubborn marks remained stubborn. Sometimes lacquer thinner worked; sometimes not so well. Buffing sometimes worked; sometimes not so well. What worked very well was one of my wife's cleaning products, made for fiberglass sinks and fiberglass showers. With a little rubbing, the stain immediately vanished. As usual, Miss Pat was right again.

As I scoured the deck, I noticed again how much attention to detail these boats have. Once again, I was surprised at how aesthetically laid out the decks are. From a design perspective, the fine lines here and there become cumulative, adding a graceful sense of flow to the deck. What I had not noticed before were the scuppers and toe rails. The foredeck near the front hatch has been designed to allow water to escape from the cabin deck as well as from the bow area deck, with the toe rails functioning as scuppers. Even the hatch (both companionway and foredeck) each have scuppers, and so do the cockpit benches.

Maybe you have noticed that, but maybe not. The small things are so easy to overlook. I rather think that if a design pays attention to small things, the big things are probably just as well designed. Take care of the small things, and you take care of the big things. And MacGregor did both. These are good boats.

I'll be away for a few days, but when I returned maybe I can work on the mast raising system and get that right.


Fair sailing,


Barnacle Jim

[Russ]

Wow! That boat looks great. Shines like new. The trailer appears to be in excellent shape as well.

[Madelon]

" Maybe there are some other 26 S sailors out there, who might share what they do with the mast raising system? "

I adapted the new system that comes for the Mac 26X and M to my 26S. You can get it from BWY (http://www.bwyachts.com/BWYParts/info.htm). Comes with instructions for adapting it to older Mac models, a piece of cake. Essentially consists of a gin pole with a winch with clutch mounted on it. You raise the mast by cranking the winch. Changed my life, raising the mast is now almost a pleasure
Check out also this link: http://www.tropicalboating.com/2010/04/ ... -sailboats
Albert Fischer s/v Madelon

[Barnacle Jim]

Ahoy,

Thanks for the helpful comments; I have been away for a few days and had ordered a pair of blocks with two sheaves each. Well, wouldn't you know it. The blocks came in, but somehow, I had not ordered one of the blocks with a becket (sometimes called a thimble by some people). It's difficult and maybe downright impossible to make a block and tackle without a becket. Well, I have to wait until my block with becket comes in. For the line to become a rope, it has to attach to something on the block. That something is a becket.

Yes, I did take a look at the latest MacGregor mast-raising system, the one with the small brake winch. What an ingenious approach! It's simple, allows adjustments, and is very safe. I may end up following that approach; for now, however, using the boat winch and keeping Miss Pat in the cockpit is lot safer for us. Maybe a little later, we'll change to the more simple system. The mast-raising systems are one of the nice attention to detail that MacGregor put into these boats. Don't you like that? I do.

For the last few days, I have been thinking about rigging and options such as jib furler, spinakker sock, traveler, boom vang, and other things like these. Well, the list seems almost unending, doesn't it? If I do anything, it will have to be in increments. At the moment, however, the top lift is not top on my list. We want to make the boat as safe as we can, and as easy to sail as we can. I really like these boats.



Fair Sailing,

Barnacle Jim

[Catigale]

Some makes of blocks will let you add a becket to a block with hand tools, FWIW.

[Daniel]

Barnacle Jim, I have recently added a 2nd axle to my trailer and repainted. Blue Water Yachts have replacement decals. I believe they are the same for both the trailer and boat.