So I just bought a Mac X....

[Drifter]

Thanks!

Have just ordered one

[opie]

What an exciting adventure. You are giving all of us much enjoyment as you sort out the bits of your new 26X.
--- On my 1999 X, the entire centerboard cable is line, not metal wire. Something similar to your halyard will work. My understanding is the factory jumped from wire to line about 2000.
-- There was a hook from factory that centerboard cable ran across after topside exit. I replaced that with a small block at top.
-- The ballast valve handle was intended to be long and accessible at deck level. My pic shows the bracket for it but my valve extension was short when I bought boat and remains so.
- I loosen prop bolt by placing wood block between blade of prop and lower unit above blade.




Also, the small starboard side drain hole needs to be traced while on your belly with a flashlight inside boat. Admirals usually love that type of job.

ps - excuse the black border on my pics. No somberness was intended.

[Drifter]

Talking of parts, my first order from BWY has arrived!

I now has a replacement ballast valve for the underneath, plus a spare gasket. I will slather the end of the rod with heavy duty grease, and will make a note to not just open but remove or at least carefully hose down the lower end, to try and prevent it rusting.

I'm thinking of removing the rear valve and having a good look at how it's installed. I have a new one, without the barnacles, so worth doing anyway. I'm also considering if it's possible/practical to enlarge the hole and fit the bigger 3" valve used on later models?

Still not sure if the double valve system of this early boat is a better system but changed to reduce cost, or if the bigger valve is the better system. I lean towards preferring the idea of a single valve, if only for simplicity and because the central valve is known to fail - like this one already did.

Or just stick with the 1.5" hole and accept it takes a long time to empty and fill?

One concern is I don't want to squash my expensive new trailer by trying to get onto it with a full tank. Sure I can empty it before driving home but will it squish the poor thing before I get the chance? Becoming more and more convinced I should have just bought a big, heavy duty trailer. Then again that central valve means I can empty it quite a bit while much of the boat is still in the water... Mmm...

Been really busy with work lately and right now I'm really lacking enthusiasm to work on the Mac. I spent 6 weeks of working on my old boat, trying to prepare it for sale before rainy season, and to sell it before the Mac arrived. Wasn't able to, so now it's in my back garden, the Mac in the way - and I'm just really tired of working on boats!

Hopefully client work will settle down and I'll come back at it with renewed energy.

I still haven't even tried starting the Honda engine yet. I reversed it back too far and the other boat (that other darn boat, jeez...) is in the way. No room for my water tank. Such a simple thing, hook up my truck and pull it forward, but I've been messing around with the trailer, and only now have I got my truck's reverse camera working.

It's going to be a long slow process I think. Guess I should write a very long list of all the things that need doing.

[NiceAft]

One concern is I don't want to squash my expensive new trailer by trying to get onto it with a full tank.

While on the water, about five minutes before you are returning to the marina, open the valve and empty the tank.

If you are at a slip, and taking your boat out, open the valve as you are heading towards your trailer. The ballast will be emptying as you pull onto the trailer, and as you are pulling the trailer up the ramp, Sit there a bit and the ballast will empty, Be certain to raise the motor before pulling the trailer out of the water.

[svscott]

Drifter, I like the idea of enlarging the stern hole for faster filling/emptying and just leaving the bottom hole closed. You could even fiberglass it closed or maybe slather on some epoxy barrier coat to the steel plate and threaded rod the before installing it to isolate from salt water? Only the portion of rod sticking out of the tank needs to be threaded. I'm super grateful to be sailing in Lake Erie with an almost ocean size amount of fresh water!

On the 26X, motoring at speed with the stern valve open works really well. Unlike my X, my 26D only has the fill hole under the companionway and until recent years I always pulled it onto the trailer with a half ton of water and opened the valve and drained the ballast while very slowly driving up the launch ramp. Before paying for the marina each year, I used to trailer and launch each time I went out and would always get comments from power boaters that thought my boat was sinking because of the amount of water pouring from the boat. A couple years ago I figured out that I could use a 12v air mattress pump to easily push the water back out of the ballast tank. When bubbles start coming out you know it's empty. On my D, I actually prefer to keep the ballast tank full until I'm tied off to the launch ramp dock and then I use the air pump to empty the tank while I'm backing my trailer in. Just make sure to close the bottom valve before loading the boat so it doesn't snag on the trailer. Having the ballast tank empty prior to putting it on the trailer helps to get the boat tight to the bow stop and minimizes the need for the Mac bump or needing to refloat and rewinch. While loading the still filled boat, I once broke the original winch strap and had to rig a temporary rope to get it loaded. Even empty, the Macs all tend to pull away from the rubber bow stop a few inches when pulling up the ramp.

My Honda 50 hadn't been run in over a year before I bought it but the PO had new batteries installed plus oil change and new spark plugs put in and she fired right up when I got to Long Island, NY to buy the boat. The impeller telltale hole was slightly clogged and needed to be poked clean to clear sand or salt debris. I have run the motor for a handful of hours in the last month and it's been running great so far but I plan to do a full engine service this winter, including engine oil and gear oil change and replacing the impeller and it's associated seals. I don't have a big enough water tank for the BF50 so I use a pair of muffs and garden hose.

[Tomfoolery]

One concern is I don't want to squash my expensive new trailer by trying to get onto it with a full tank.

While on the water, about five minutes before you are returning to the marina, open the valve and empty the tank.

If you are at a slip, and taking your boat out, open the valve as you are heading towards your trailer. The ballast will be emptying as you pull onto the trailer, and as you are pulling the trailer up the ramp, Sit there a bit and the ballast will empty, Be certain to raise the motor before pulling the trailer out of the water.

This is what I do. If I can't or don't want to drain the ballast by motoring at speed, I just open the ballast valve and vent, then load the boat. As soon as the bow hits the roller up front (that I added to make it easier to load), and the bow pitches up a little, water starts draining. It's draining during the whole process, since it's pitched upward.

With such a long, shallow ballast tank, it only takes a little upward pitch to drain the whole thing, and by the time I'm actually hauling up the ramp slowly, watching to see that the stern stays centered, there just isn't much water left in the tank. It's still pouring out once it's clear of the water, but it's not a solid stream, which means the extra weight from that residual water is actually pretty light.

[Drifter]

Thanks for all the feedback

Some weird things which might or might not be part of the boat...



One of these is like a lobster trap, but closed at both ends. The other round thing has 3 'blades'. I have no idea what either of these are?

There is also some trim, from somewhere. Any ideas where? Maybe the inside of the bow?



Am working my way through the many boxes of stuff that came with the boat. Talking of that, I've found some flares, and some other things that I'm not sure what they are. They look similar to the flares but seem to be double-ended? I don't have any pics of them at the moment, but are there such things as double-ended flares? Sounds like a safety nightmare... I'm wondering if they perhaps produce smoke? Is that a thing?

?

[Drifter]

So I have managed to translate that the weird double-ended flare things actually come apart into 2 things, and in the wording it says "Flame color bright red".

It also says to "turn downwind", so I'm thinking these are hand-held smoke flares?

2 bonus questions!

Am I missing something from the end of my mast?







And does anyone have any idea what this gray thing is on my hatch?




A pic of one of the Japanese flare thingies:




This boat is quite a puzzle so far...

[NiceAft]

You appear to be missing a cap on the end of your mast.

The “gray thing” seems to be a bracket which something slides onto. What looks like parallel vertical lines actually taper inwards as they descend. Something slides on, and then would be easily removed. Could have been a place for a compass, but I’m only guessing.

[svscott]

The black bladed thing looks like an anchor indicator that some countries require to be hung from your halyard while at anchor. The closed fabric net thing may be part of that but I'm not sure? The US doesn't use this system.

The thin fabric covered trim looks like the interior cover for the very back of your aft berth.

The base of your mast should have a stainless steel plate bolted onto it. It may be the smaller plate sitting inside the deck mounted plate shown in the pic below your mast. When you step the mast, you'll use a 3/8" x 4" stainless bolt to attach your mast base plate to the deck plate and that will be your pivot point when you raise the mast.

I'm not sure what the gray thing is on the hatch slider. It looks like it could be a hanger bracket for somethin. It looks like it's got a cylindrical shape, maybe for a small fire extinguisher.

Edited to add a screenshot from Wikipedia about day shape signals.
Also, maybe the gray bracket holds the separated flares?

[Tomfoolery]

The black bladed thing looks like an anchor indicator that some countries require to be hung from your halyard while at anchor. The closed fabric net thing may be part of that but I'm not sure? The US doesn't use this system.

Day signals, I'm guessing. Anchor ball, and possibly the other is a steaming cone. And the US does require it, but you never (ever) see a recreational boat using them.



The anchor ball should have 4 semicircular panels, so it looks like a solid ball from afar. It does the job of the masthead (steaming) light on the front of the mast, but during the day. Same with the anchor ball, in place of the anchor all-round white light, which is at night of course.

[Russ]

My guess is those are flares if they say "color red". Contraband in your country, no?

If I'm seeing this correctly, that is the BASE of your mast. Appears to have 2 wire connections (anchor light, steaming etc.).

The deck mount appears to have the bracket that should be on the end (base) of the mast. This shouldn't come off. It stays attached to the base of the mast and is connected to the deck via that big long bolt that pivots and allows you to raise the mast.

If the bow of the boat is left in that photo, the bracket is on reversed. Bolt should be through the rear holes allowing it to hinge back. The forward holes are for the mast raising pole.

The thing on the hatch is a compass mount. I have one that is mounted off to the side of the hatch.

[Drifter]

Wow, you guys are awesome!

Yes, the flare things probably are contraband, not sure what to do with them really. The hand-held red flame/smoke type are probably OK but the type that fire into the sky will be illegal. I'll take them down to the local police station, as ironically that's safer than having such safety equipment on board. The laws here are ridiculous on such things.

I was rather hoping the thing on the boat bracket was meant to be on the end of the mast, as it looks very raw and bare as it is. Didn't look right. I'll take more pics later when actually doing so, to make double-sure I have it on correctly

[opie]

My boat is across town in a lot, so I did couch surfing for you.
https://www.foghornlullaby.com/about/ma ... -the-mast/

[Jimmyt]

Looks like whoever took it apart wasn't familiar with the boat. But looks like the didn't lose anything, so that's a plus.