MacGregorSailors.com

Always great videos Paul.

Ray

Thanks, I was under the impression it was considerably larger based on having a sink! If I'm sitting in the sink that's not an advantage. Guess I need to climb back in one again!

Yeah, Try it again with the door closed, The head is very tight, the floor is raised making it smaller than it appears. It does make a great wet locker as stated.

If you are upgrading for space vs motor check out the hunter 260, lots of space and aft head. A sailboat forum member was happy going from the S to 260.

http://forums.sailboatowners.com/index. ... 60.117193/

Excellent stuff Paul, I am going to bookmark those to my youtube account

Russ, I can document the head for you here - I think this thread is okay for it since the subject is the head:

First, lets look at the mod - here is the door closed from the inside - there is total privacy and with the overhead shades drawn it's dark enough to sleep in the daytime:


I am still working on the little magazine rack there on the bottom so excuse that little screw sticking out - It's not entirely finished yet.

Though it appears that you might see over the top that is really a reflection from the roof of the boat - there is no way to get your head up high enough to see over the door because it's within a 1/2 of an inch from the roof:



But the main key for this mod was to create a door that was LIGHTER and take up LESS space than the original door:



The door is very thin and takes up less room in the head when your not using it. I weighed both doors and this one is 1/2 the weight of the factory door.

.

I put a 1/2" spacer behind the door hinges which allows the door to open all the way across the boat, to the port setee. It really opens up the head area without a lot of work. It makes for a nice changing area. I may add a curtain between the head area and the v-berth next year.

The entire assembly is three parts - an inner door, an outer door, and the metal drawer slides.
Here are all three parts in their assembled configuration:


The metal sliders shown above are the only part of the door that is attached to the boat.


The inner door is 1 inch thick at the thickest point and the outer door slides into it on wooden slides*.

As I said above, the inner door is the only part of the whole thing that is actually attached to the boat
by means of metal sliders that are not fully visible here because they are on the back side.


The outer door is 1/2 inch thick and slides into the inner door on wooden slides:
*Very Important (Wooden slides are very lightweight so the door puts no stress on the inner door drawer slides.)

Finally, this little kick plate that goes on the bottom of the outer door (I call the "magazine rack")
It attaches to the bottom AFTER you install the door (to ease installation).

What else?

With respect to the engineering and craftsmanship of the sliding door mod, this execution adds no more room to the head than just opening or removing the original door altogether. The need to accommodate modesty is akin to creating quarantine zones for two people aboard a vessel this size.

With no door mods on the , with the head door open, I can command from the throne with ample leg room into the cabin, have abundant fresh air and light thru the open companion way to enjoy the morning SUDOKU, and am within arms reach of coffee brewing on the stove!

K9Kampers wrote:With respect to the engineering and craftsmanship of the sliding door mod, this execution adds no more room to the head than just opening or removing the original door altogether. The need to accommodate modesty is akin to creating quarantine zones for two people aboard a vessel this size.

With no door mods on the , with the head door open, I can command from the throne with ample leg room into the cabin, have abundant fresh air and light thru the open companion way to enjoy the morning SUDOKU, and am within arms reach of coffee brewing on the stove!

Yeah, that's not really a picture I'm going to get out of my head easy, thanks for the graphic.

I don't think my wife is going to go for that, and any guests that are in the cockpit will need to cover there eyes while your hanging out the head door - I don't think I could get final approval for that design.

The other issue here is dressing and undressing and having a comfortable space to sit and wash up - a space large enough to change your underwear without kicking the door down.

Your suggested option of just "leaving off the doors to the heads" is an interesting one and sort of takes up back to the original thread of "moving the head" - if there are no doors or boundaries for the head, why not just put it right there under the opening to the companionway? The toilet would make a great place as a step getting in and out of the cabin and there you have all the headroom and legroom the MAC has to offer.

If you need no doors then on the X you would be better off to just saw out the entire head space to make better room for the aft bunk.

..

BOAT wrote: What else?

Wow, simply beautiful as all your mods. You are quite talented. They all look deliberate and not an add-on thought.

What kind of wood is that? It's lighter than the original door? I forgot what the door is made out of. (laminate?) I finally tossed it.

BTW, that is that you did with the actual head? It looks covered and tucked away nice and neat. The "shelf" also seems to be covered.

The door skin is a thin luann plywood - nothing special. The ribbing for that skin is mahogany.
It slides out of the way:



The pottie is a thetford - we have been spoiled by the larger thetford camping style potties so we use that instead of the marine style potties that are much closer to the ground.

There is a shelf to accommodate the larger pottie and also the shelf keeps the pottie in place without the need to bolt it down - we learned long ago in motorhomes and vans and small boats that a pottie that you can slide around is easier to use (some folks are left handed and others are right handed) and - well you get the idea.

The larger pottie holds more poo

I experimented with removing the forward head wall too but it did not makes as big a difference as you would have expected so I putr it back in.




.

...any guests that are in the cockpit will need to cover there eyes while your hanging out the head door - I don't think I could get final approval for that design.

On the , the head door hinges aft when open, no need for crew to sip their boat drinks with eyes closed!

The other issue here is dressing and undressing and having a comfortable space to sit and wash up - a space large enough to change your underwear without kicking the door down.

With the whole boat as a sitting space...

If you need no doors then on the X you would be better off to just saw out the entire head space to make better room for the aft bunk.

For me, it's not a matter of not needing the door, it's that I don't prioritize around privacy. My head doubles it's function as a wet locker and the door allows storage on both sides. The inside face accommodates storage of hatch boards and other functional items and the outer face has a navigation rack for charts, binoculars, horn,... For the first nine years, I a had nylon wall hanging storage pockets organizer on the door but over the years, the many small pockets collected too many things and the material started degrading. A 3/4 beam wide opening to the aft storage is adequate, but I had visualized cutting off the top 1/3 or 1/2 of the head enclosure and install a hinged to surface.

Back to the OP...

My question; has anyone considered relocating the head on an M from the front to the rear? I believe it could be done on the starboard side due to the moveable galley.

Without looking at the starboard cabin geometry, I can imagine a mod to accommodate a head in the area of the aft dinette seat. The challenge then comes to matters of privacy, if needed. An -like enclosure to be added, or a sliding platform that tucks away in the aft storage area.

BOAT wrote:... a space large enough to change your underwear...

??? That must be a west coast thing!!

There's no right or wrong answer to the issue of privacy, if you need it, it's justified.

Both & heads have no real advantage over the other but for location, as both are barely adequate for their designed function.

Consider how much time is actually spent in the head vs not instead of focusing on it as a drawback to the whole Mac experience.

K9 said:

how much time is actually spent in the head vs not instead of focusing on it as a drawback to the whole Mac experience.

That's a matter of opinion, and more importantly, timing! When you gotta go.......You gotta go

Ray

BOAT wrote:
... a space large enough to change your underwear..

Who wear,s underwear ! when yer on the Boat just let the wind blow free !

J

Both & heads have no real advantage over the other but for location, as both are barely adequate for their designed function.

Well if u need more room do what they done in the days of old "make urself a 4ft bowsprit " Doubles as a bidet " also & lots of legs room

Make,s a great bar while sitting on dockside

Consider how much time is actually spent in the head vs not instead of focusing on it as a drawback to the whole Mac experience.
You need to move ur magazine rack either into the cockpit or bowsprit & u,ll spend less time in there

J