MacGregorSailors.com

Rob,
You can go to the Blue Water Yachts website to see how the new compares to your old mast raising system. Tony

My two cents on this issue, I have an original 95 Macgregor 96X and use the original mast raising system. I see no problem in the design ,what I do like about it is as I use the winch to raise the mask. I am in the cockpit and able to easily reach any snags in the rigging to allow the mast to raise quickly. I solo sail a bunch. I think of that pole with a winch on it would be quite problematic to store

Here are photos of the 26M mast raising system in use on a 26X. This is the one that Blue Water Yachts supplies. It attaches to all the same points that the original mast raising system attached to. I have not shown the baby stays installed, because they’re the same on both systems (I’ve actually built a rigging wire baby stay system and have tossed the rope one - it’s stronger, tighter, and stores smaller.

As for storage, it is a wee bit bigger than the original mast raising system, but given we don’t really use the aft berths, it stores easily back there.

Those pictures seem to be missing the baby stays.
Baby stays = connect where the bail is on the mast, down to the boat, exactly in line with where the mast hinges.
When I trailered, I left them on for sailing, have them off now that I am in a slip.
Highly suggested you use the baby stays as the mast will swing from one side to the other until the regular stays become tight, but that only happens af full up position.

Without them you can swing and bend things.

Note the brackets in the first image, on the deck, next to the front of the jib-car-track.
They are basically flat bar, bent so that there is a gap between the deck and the plate, the end of the baby stay is a greater than 90% bend that hooks under the bracket, uses a bolt to keep them temporarily in place.

leefrankpierce wrote: ↑Tue Aug 19, 2025 6:08 am Those pictures seem to be missing the baby stays.
Baby stays = connect where the bail is on the mast, down to the boat, exactly in line with where the mast hinges.
When I trailered, I left them on for sailing, have them off now that I am in a slip.
Highly suggested you use the baby stays as the mast will swing from one side to the other until the regular stays become tight, but that only happens af full up position.

Without them you can swing and bend things.

Hmm. You may want to read my post again?

I never learned to read, only write.

I have often thought of improving the baby stay setup, likely simular to what you did.