MacGregorSailors.com

Hi,
I recently acquired a boat that sat in storage for almost 20 years. It had about 9 inches of water in it which I thought was due to the hatch having been removed by vandals. I drained it out and fixed the hatch only to find that while in storage it filled up again!! I don't know the boats design but wondered how that could happen. Even if the boat had a bilge pump to keep up with rain and sea water that is too much water now that the hatches were tight.

Well I found the problem was that the floor drain on the stern deck wasn't draining out the boat but emptying into the hull. The radiator hose was disconnected from the tube connected to the hole in the deck by the stern. Boy as I glad that I didn't put it in the water after draining it the first time or it would have been submerged by the time I got back from parking the trailer!

Well now I see that the foam blocks are water logged and that all the wiring has been under water for years. Has anyone had a similar experience? I don't know where to start with these repairs?

Well, you got me by a decade, but with remarkably familiar-sounding woes, Bro. My own "foundling", a very pretty and salty-looking little Com-Pac 16, had been mouldering in the same state park boat lot I keep my 26X in for about a decade untouched, except by foul weather and creeping vines, and also had a missing companionway hatch for who knows how long before I got her. And yes, she was flooded too--at least a foot deep--right up to the bunks. But she's dry as a bone now, and I'm optimistic that she'll be in the water next season after a little interior woodwork and some fresh lines here and there. Of course, the little Com-Pac 16 has the virtue of being ultra-simple, and it seems what few electrics she has are well above the flood line, as it were.

Awhile back I posted a plug for Brian Gilbert's great little book, Fix it and sail: Everything you need to know to buy and restore a small sailboat on a shoestring (Camden, ME : International Marine, 2006) [ISBN 0-07-145809-3]. My posting even had a link for a freebie download of it, which may or may not still be working. It turns out that of the many old boat choices Gilbert discusses at length, he chose in the end to restore a MacGregor Venture 222. You might find it helpful. I know I did, coming to grips with squaring away my 26X. Which brings me to the main question: Exactly what hole-not-yet-in-the-water-that-you-throw-all-your-money-and-time-into did you settle on? Pix would be nice.

My boat and trailer were built in 1982. The boat was loaded with lots of sails, oars, lines, etc. The last owner added lots of upgrades and it seems that he raced it too. It has so many lines, blocks and cleats that I don't even know what they are all used for. Only the back stay seems to need replacement but from what I read the M25 might not even need it. I pressure washed the outside just to get the worst of the crud off the hull. It will just take time and money to clean her up. All boat owners know how that goes. I can't figure out how to add pictures or I would do that. I live near Chicago so next year I want to get her into the lake. Maybe I will luck out and find a MacGregor knowledgeable person to give me free advice on how to rig her. Until then I will keep researching and cleaning her up.

Tinypic.com or Photobucket are two easy-to-use services that will host your pix for free, with Tinypic requiring no registration. On the other hand, Photobucket sets up a sort of album. Here's an example of a pic hosted by Tinypic in about 15 seconds, in this case of my "Foundling" Com-Pac 16 after its first cleaning in a decade last Spring:



You'll eventually want to square away some kind of photo hosting, if only to illustrate situations that may present themselves, if you hope to get any meaningful feedback or advice from online forums like this one. Pictures of all that "mystery gear" bequeathed to you by the previous owner spring immediately to mind.

Is your new "project boat" in your driveway, back yard or someplace really close at hand to work on whenever the mood strikes, without needing to saddle up and drive somewhere to it? My hunch is that immediate proximity, more than any other single factor, will determine how quickly, if ever, such a rehab hits the drink. In my case, having finally gotten my 26X in August 2015 after months and months of trying to sort out a missing trailer title, I took a month off from work and did the really brute stuff (like the prep and bottom painting) right in my front yard before moving it to the state park. Frankly, without my ancient RV with its superb AC right next to the boat to fall back into and decompress, curtains drawn and with an icy drink, towel and a box of wet wipes at the ready, I really doubt I'd have gotten her done as quickly as I did. That was one torrid August here in Virginia. If she had been in a boat yard, with no cool dark refuge nearby to escape into, I might have just called it a day and gone on home every time I felt a little "heat strokey" instead of just taking a half hour break and then going back at her fresh. A nearby space to space for a bit is a fine thing...even if it's only a chair, a little table, a beach umbrella and a fan.

http://s1248.photobucket.com/user/thele ... boat/story

[img]<iframe%20width="480"%20height="360"%20src="http://s1248.photobucket.com/user/thele ... "></iframe>[/img]

This should be the link to my pictures before I cleaned up the boat a little. I don't think I am attaching them correctly though.

Just keep practicing with the photo thing. You'll get it. When in doubt, right-click the photo in your browser, choose "Copy photo link location" or similar (browsers vary), come back to this forum's message editor thing, click the little