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Hi MacGregorsailors, I am new in your community. Just bought a MacGregor 26X two month ago. So fare I am pretty happy with her. I have just one short question. My Mac is tied on a bouy at Lake Constance in Switzerland. Somehow the inlet / outlet valve dos not seal proper. Usually I empty the ballast tank before I get back to my bouy. Allways when I get back to the boat after a few days, the tank is full again, even when the Valve is closed.
Is this normal or should the valve be completely sealed as soon the valve is closed? If yes, where could I get the needed sparepart?
Thanks for any help.
(I apologize for my English, never spend one hour in any school to learn it. Just picked it up from the street as I was Traveling)

With valve closed it should not leak. It is just a 3" RV waste gate by Valterra you can buy them all over the web and ebay just google "Valterra 3" Dump Valve RV"

On another note why do you dump your ballast if you are tying up to a mooring? The boat we be far more stable and ride better on the mooring buoy if you leave the ballast in. You only need to dump if you are going to trailer or motor around at high speed

Welcome to the community!
I believe every transom valve will at some point start to leak as the rubber seal ages. As long as the ballast water is not pouring out during sailing it should not be too big of a problem. Equally important is the air vent that you have under the cabin step or the forward berth, depending on the build year of your If that's not airtight, the effect of a leaking transom valve will be much worse. I replaced my original air vent plug with a screw-in type. Since then the water leakage is negligible.

Welcome from Australia

Its better to have ballast leak in than leak out

Thanks to anyone. Very helpful inputs. I will get one of those Valves and change it. Can only get better. Actually, I hoped, it is possible to change only the rubber seal, instead of the whole part.
First, I dump the ballast because I am afraid of osmosis. The tank is not coated with gelcoat inside… that means, no protection at all between water and fiberglass. I would like to minimize the time of water inside the ballast tank.
Second, the last view weeks have been very windy at lake Constance… nice for sailing, but the eyelet at the bow, to tying the mooring is small and looks not very strong. I don’t trust it too much. I thought, less weight will put less force on it as soon the wind and waves are catching my Mac, and pushing her around when she is moored. I am afraid that the eyelet will be pulled out of the hull. I already seen that by boats which have been build much stronger then the Mac X

I believe that Blue Water Yachts sells the O-Ring for about $3. However, it is my understanding that you still have to remove the 3" valve to be able to replace the seal. They also have the replacement valve and extension handles for the valve. Good Luck.

In my twelve years on this board, I don't recall ever reading about a bow eyelet that pulled apart. Maybe someone else will correct me, but I just don't recall an eyelet ever ripping out.

I also don't recall ever reading about osmosis occurring in a ballast tank. I don't know how one would discover that, but I have never read of that problem.

Ray

P.S. No need to apologize for your english, it's better than some english speakers who post on here.

In my twelve years on this board, I don't recall ever reading about a bow eyelet that pulled apart. Maybe someone else will correct me, but I just don't recall an eyelet ever ripping out.

I also don't recall ever reading about osmosis occurring in a ballast tank. I don't know how one would discover that, but I have never read of that problem.

Ray

P.S. No need to apologize for your english, it's better than some english speakers who post on here.

MacCharter I think your worrying about nothing,

We all put huge amounts of pressure on the bow ring when we pull the boats up onto the trailer, much more than one would ever put on it by mooring.

I have never heard of osmosis in the ballast tanks, lots of water ballasted Macs are now well over 20 years old and I have never heard of osmosis forming in the ballast tank

The gelcoat used on the Mac is the same as the glass resin, Polyester so it makes no real different. Also the tank remains a wet humid environment even drained so if you are going to get delamination caused by hydrolysis you will get it, which is what you should be afraid of. Periodically drying the boat out will help but once the process starts it is hard to stop as it is a chemical reaction

There are a number of factors that will contribute to the rate at which osmosis will occur. The quality and type of gelcoat and resin, the amount of peroxide catalyst used and the workshop conditions at the time of lay up are important. Hulls that contain numerous bubbles of trapped air will be more susceptible to osmosis. Additionally, the length of time the boat remains in the water, its salinity and temperature will impact the rate of osmosis.

So being a Mac and being so cheaply made osmosis or rather hydrolysis is almost a given at some point in time if it is not pulled from the water periodically to dry out fully

sailboatmike wrote:MacCharter I think your worrying about nothing,
We all put huge amounts of pressure on the bow ring when we pull the boats up onto the trailer, much more than one would ever put on it by mooring.

I had a broken bow ring.
I normaly do not more anymore the at the bow ring.

Better use the deck clamps. They are made for this.

I think the load by pulling it on the trailer is not so much. And it is no shock load. The shock loads are the big ones. Not the ones on the trailer winch...

Thanks Kadet, nice to know that my Mac will sooner or later fall apart. Although I knew it before… I used to make a total refit on a Neptun 27 and a Jouet 600. Until you see it with your own eyes, you want believe what osmosis and hydrolysis can cause to a boat. And always there where you would never expect it. However, the lucky side is, it takes a while until the structure is so heavy damaged that you must throw away your beauty.
I am aware, it is almost impossible to take control about that, what happen in my ballast tank. And even if I know I couldn’t fix it because I can’t get there. At least I can minimize the circumstances that cause the problems and extend the lifetime of my Mac.

Thanks to NiceAf… At least I know now that all of you can understand the main sense behind my post.

Thanks to kurz, I have seen a boat with cracked bow. The bow ring was pulled out of the hull including a piece of fiberglass as big like a hand. There is a rule in our mooring field. You must use two lines from the bouy to the boat. One to the bow eyelet and one to the clamps. I already was thinking about taking the main force over the clamps. My problem… I trust the clamps just as much like the bow ring.

Lämna ballasten in. Det kommer inte att skada. Vi lämnar vårt hela tiden. Fäst förtöjning för att buga klammer och båge ring. Du kommer att bli bra.

Leave the ballast in. It won't hurt. We leave ours in all the time. Attach mooring to bow cleats AND bow ring. You will be fine.

Welcome to the board.

--Russ

kurz wrote:

sailboatmike wrote:MacCharter I think your worrying about nothing,
We all put huge amounts of pressure on the bow ring when we pull the boats up onto the trailer, much more than one would ever put on it by mooring.

I had a broken bow ring.
I normaly do not more anymore the at the bow ring.

Better use the deck clamps. They are made for this.

I think the load by pulling it on the trailer is not so much. And it is no shock load. The shock loads are the big ones. Not the ones on the trailer winch...

If the shock loads are high you should be using a snubber to take the shock, just like one does at anchor.

I have heard of bow shackles breaking but that is due to crevice corrosion in the stainless steel fitting.

Hi RussMT

Thanks for your advice.
By the way... I am Swiss... not Swedish