MacGregorSailors.com

Guys, i have a week to get boat ready for marina and need to get the mess thats all over the cabin (boat supplies, tools, fishing gear, vests, ropes, parts etc) tucked away somewhere on my Mac 26. I dont know how you keep your boats so nice and empty. A spare motor takes up front seat (have a flipdown motor bracket for spare so other motor and rudders can move, its only for emergencies). Boat is usaed in saltwater often in 4 ft seas. Only 1 compartment seema to be raised and enclosed so i keep manuala flares etc there. But i have a ton of tools and spare parts. Boom lays inside since fishing in big waves is not a sailing activity. Anything i put in the wide open compatlryments gets splaahed with saltwater before pumps get rid of it and then stays wet year round. I will take any and all tips on how to minimize crap and where to store what and how to make boat user friendly aka have a table and seating open. The rear sleep compartment i cant put loy of stuff into (dont use it for sleep) because heavy outboard doesnt like lot of weight back there but i could use it for some storage just not small items as theyd be all over the place. afraid to use material bags with zippers that rust and soak in water but is thick trashbags sealed a good option for storage under floor or get moldy either way? and sails- keep in fabric bag in aft space? Thanks!

We use a matching set of various sized clear plastic bins with clip lock overlapping lids from Lowe’s.
Small ones can be used independently or placed with larger ones as desired to stay organized.
Sized to fit into aft berth in two rows with an open row space between them for accessibility.
We can use our boat hook to snag/pull/push things to where we need.

Here is a link to our storage mod with the bins we’ve used in a generic layout.
We vary it as our needs change from trip to trip.
https://macgregorsailors.com/mods/index ... em&id=2167


We find it easier to find - move - relocate - etc with the hard cases rather than a bunch of flimsy easily torn canvas or plastic bags.
If water does get splashed on them it sheds off.
And water around the base of the bins is sealed out.
Moving them from boat to shore and back is easier for us given the bins have handles.
They are designed together so things fit readily on top of each other for the most part.
Being hard sided with overlapping lids keeps the rain out when transiting the parking lots, piers and docks.
Drying the outsides is a single mid sized hand towel from our experience.
Win - Win - Win

With all your anticipated splash and spray and 4 ft seas and may be single handed we’re wondering if you have installed some sort electric bilge pump system…. It’s impossible to hand bail and control your vessel… (Been there/Done that )

Best Regards,
Over Easy

I would go to the Mods section of the website and do a search for "storage". You'll find lots of ideas that you can implement.

Cheers,

Kelvin

I use these Sterilite plastic boxes I get a Walmart in the aft bunk of my 26X. They have gasket seals so humidity or water incursion is never an issue. They are also clear so you can see what's inside without having to open the box.

All of the above work.

What I would suggest is marking the the tops of the storage boxes clearly with a large letter (A,B,C etc).

Also making a list of what is in each marked container. When you need something, it makes things easier to find when you can just look down a list to see which container has the item. Also mark on the list whether the container is port side or starboard, and mark the lid of the compartment cover with the letter of which storage box is under it.

Kelvin and everyone thank you, i disnt know there was a storage section on this site, i went to bwyachts and there was nothing for sale, was hoping for things like a drop in hanging container for the front seat like there is for the back seat but found nothing. Will study all your responses now...

Look in the mods section. BTW, there are tons of mods listed with some great idea.

Storage section
https://macgregorsailors.com/mods/index ... ategory=63

Mods general page
https://macgregorsailors.com/mods/

Printing all this out and heading to home deoot right now. For areas in bilge where boxes wont fit, can anything go in sealed thick trash bags in a saltwater/freashwater boat or bad idea? i assume better than brrathable bags but good for anything? or vacuum sealed bags in bilge? seems like there are drier parts of bilge up front

Did anyone happen to use a boat diagram like the one on sailboatdata.com and overlay dimensions on it for cabin spaces?

OverEasy, i have 3 bilge pumps all over the place fir redundancy but they dont get every mm of water everywhere which when tilting adds up to a lot more and splashes around, i also think the bilge is very moist from just a little water

In the best of all worlds, you should have no topside leaks and your Macgregor bilges should stay dry on their own without assistance. (Not trying to have a debate about whether Macgregor sailboats have actual "bilges," just using the term colloquially to mean any open space against the hull under the cabin sole or berths.) If you have topside water incursion, as you have discovered, typical bilge pumps do not pick up the last inch or two of depth of water from the bilge.

The solution is something like the Seaflo Dry Bilge System: https://www.google.com/search?q=seaflo+dry+bilge+system

I made my own using the same small pump used in the Dry Bilge System. I mostly copied these guys.

I have water pickups running to the low points on both the starboard and port sides. My setup does not have a timer but instead wired the pump directly to a switch on the 12 volt panel. My 26X lives full-time in the salt water in the PNW where it rains more or less incessantly for six months in the winter. In the winter, I just run the small pump for a minute or two every few days which is enough to keep the bilges dry. My goal is to eliminate all standing water inside the boat so I don't have any mold. If you are going to leave your boat unattended, you might consider purchasing the Seaflo unit since it has a built-in timer.

Hi All!

Yes, I agree, our MacGregors can be very dry boats if there aren’t any topside leaks!

At the same time I believe we can all agree that topside leaks can and do occur… and should be addressed when possible.

When water incursions do occur, for whatever reason, it’s still nice to have an autonomous way of getting the bulk of it out… least sways for us it is.

Now it’s important to understand how most simple bilge pumps work, both for operational safety and to understand why they leave that pesky 1/2”-to-1” of water behind. Most simple bilge pumps utilize a centripetal acceleration type pump that simply spins a tapered impeller within a housing. The inlet is at the bottom and the discharge from an annular ring is on the side generally in line with the top wider portion of the impeller. (Various manufacturers have their own tweaks to the same basic functionality.)

These bilge pumps don’t generate a suction, but rather simply accelerate the water the impeller is immersed in. Once the water level drops below the midline of the spinning impeller they really don’t have access to the water to accelerate anymore. Hence that pesky residual amount of water.

As there aren’t any specific bilge reservoirs or depressions built into our MacGregors this can be a bit of an annoyance!

What we did was add sections of smooth walled flexible non-kinking tubing with one end mounted vertically along side each of our bilge pumps the ends of which are nearly flush with the inner hull surface except for some small shallow notches. The other ends of these tubes are routed to thru-hull fittings readily accessible from the companionway of the cabin. That way we can use a small powerful wet/dry vacuum to periodically make sure that nearly all any remaining water is easily removed from each of the two side and the center bilge areas of our Mac26X.

As we use our Mac26X for extended trips even late (into mid-November) in the Northeast we’ve discovered that interior condensation can/does occur on the hull at and below the waterline. This can add up! This can occur anytime the water temperature drops below the dew temperature for the ambient relative humidity.
Our actual vacuuming tubes let us easily remove that condensate without having to move stuff around. Easy-Peasy!

When out of the water on the trailer the condensation aspect basically ends except when we use or Mac26X as a late-Fall/Winter/early-Spring season land camper.

Just a suggestion of what’s working for us!

Best Regards
Over Easy

This topic is is a constant concern I am guessing for a lot of Mac boats . I counted 130 screw holes in the deck holding all the hardware that is mounted on our boats . A lot of mine needed to be reset now 5 years later some need reset again. Rub rail re caulked twice . I can’t stand water in my Buildge because it’s so humid inside the cabin. So I am forced to cover the boat with a tarp to keep water out. When it does get in I simply crank up the trailer front end so waters flows towards the stern and I sponge it out . I really like that sponge pump idea. I need a carport for this boat.

I decided not to worry or have a second motor and signed up with boat us tow service. We only sail the back bay here in Texas and don’t plan on much offshore sailing. It had taken us 6 years to and still working out were all the boat stuff rest inside . In our Mac x we sleep in the v berth store stuff under the table and aft berth . Next projects is organizing our gallery and insulating the stock ice chest under the seat in front off the head to eliminate our small yehti.

yeah i have tow service i just like redundancy when engine fails close to breakers. i still get rain on front floor after storm and im not sure its windows i caulked them. have 1 inch in bilge right now lol. is it better to store sails in sealed plastic container or more breathable?