The Official "What Did You Do To Your Mac Today" Thread!

[My Mistress]

Great projects!
A back injury and just plain laziness has kept me away from "Mistress" for far too long.
The largest project that I have done is to change out the cockpit and interior carpeting. Green was last years style. It is an indoor/outdoor type, an served well (for a year).

This year, I found a grey indoor/outdoor carpet at CostCo. Same price, but twice the thickness, and it has the grooves molded in it, which should be good for traction under wet feet. IMO, it also looks better.

Now, to start spring cleaning. Dust, dirt, and pollen has settled everywhere, the O/B needs to be serviced, and I still have to transfer the trailer over to my name . We have private roads to the lake here and I keep forgetting that I'll need a proper registration to go anywhere else.

-James

 

[RussC]

This year, I found a grey indoor/outdoor carpet at CostCo. Same price, but twice the thickness, and it has the grooves molded in it, which should be good for traction under wet feet. IMO, it also looks better.

I have the same carpet. available at Home Depot. they cut the carpet runner to length for you. it works great and doesn't slip around as bad as regular carpet. I still plan to add a velcro strip at each end however.
I can relate to the back problems. since my teen years, and it sucks. get better soon!
My back got a WHOLE lot better when I retired 5 years ago however

 

[walt]

Shortly after getting the boat in my side yard a few days ago.. the saw came out (could not help myself). I could not work up to completely removing the most forward bulkhead even though I dont think it is critical.. but have no doubt it still gives some strength the boat so I still cant completely remove it. When I put the electric ice chest in where I did and with that most forward bulkhead where it was, the access to the forward V berth was a little cramped. In that area, I carry all sorts of junk including an inflatable kayak, camping chairs, fire pit and a bunch of plastic bins that have supplies for longer camping trips.

So.. I just cut that forward bulkhead back by 11 inches to open up the access and beefed up the new attachment points.

Also, I had a way to hang the two camp chairs but it was too much of a hassle to use so the chairs ended up just thrown up there and always in the way of getting to the bins. We end up using those chairs a lot so Im also trying an experimental very lightweight hanging shelf for one end of the chairs. The other end gets bungied to the cabin roof also made easier by the better access.

Interesting that that forward Vberth created an acoustic resonance chamber that screwed with some forward book shelf speakers (I have four on the boat, one of the forward bookshelf speakers is visible on the upper right hand side of the pictures). Opening up the bulkhead also seemed to dampen out the resonance and I think the stereo spectral quality has improved.

This is one of the first mods I have done in a while which actually removed weight!!

 

[Sumner]

... I could not work up to completely removing the most forward bulkhead even though I dont think it is critical.. but have no doubt it still gives some strength the boat so I still cant completely remove it. ....

Looks like it you have done some good changes for you....

I removed the complete bulkhead some years back to enlarge/lengthen the V-Berth and so far no problems and the boat has been in some pretty rough waters at times. As you said, it probably does add some strength to the boat but the one by the mast and the whole sink structure there does a lot more.

Enjoy the summer in CO. We have hardly any snow here on the mountains,

Sumner
=======================================================================
1300 miles to The Bahamas and Back in the Mac...
Endeavour 37 Mods...
MacGregor 26-S Mods...
Mac Trips to Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Canada, Florida, Bahamas

 

[walt]

We have hardly any snow here on the mountains,

Not back for another month but I understand it was a mild dry winter. News stations here in Az were warning about a worse than normal fire season.. so hope for spring snow/rain..

 

[walt]

Getting ready for a road trip with the 26S. Times like this prep that I appreciate the under 3000 pound towing weight, no trailer tongue extension and in my case only one axle/ wheel set to deal with. Staying five nights in a slip with the solar powered fridge so will get so see how things work in this case where there will be lots of unavoidable shade from other sailboats.

First picture below.. I sort of got excited about these cheap little folding plastic tables I picked up at Walmart (Ozark trail brand). I never saw a good reason for a table in the cabin but my wife may like them. I really bought them for happy hour on the dock/ slip. The folding tables should get a lot of use year around. They only weigh maybe one pound each and cleverly fold up.
.

Picture below. I have the electric ice chest all loaded up nearly 24 hours before leaving and running off the house AC. Its a little full.. a few beers may have to be taken out to fit other stuff. I am going to try and fit one frozen gallon jug of water in there for the about eight hour drive where the fridge will be just shut off. Fridge may run just fine with the vibration of trailering.. but Im not going to find out.. it will be turned off.

Up in the Vberth is an inflatable stand up paddle board and the two foldable tables shown in the first picture. Also a ton of other stuff like the camp chairs and bins for human and dog food.

Picture below. Easy to trailer means everything needs to be as easy as possible (all the little things add up). So this trip Im going to leave the jib sail wrapped on the furler laying on the side of the boat up against the life line posts (green arrows point at the jib/furler). When I get ready to set up, I just connect the top of the furler internal forestay to the toggle on the mast. Real simple and I think it will actually be easier on the furler than leaving it connected while the mast is being moved around. My furler sticks out past the end of the mast if it stays attached and I used to have some complicated PVC/Aluminum contraption for supporting the bottom of the furler that stuck out. Hope to recycle that contraption for some other use but need to make sure I will no longer need it first.

 

[walt]

An update on my solar experiment.. The frozen one gallon of water that I was going to put in the ice chest did not fit.. so I just threw a blanket over the ice chest for the drive. The fridge was turned off for the eight hour drive but once we got the boat in the water and turned back on the fridge, no problem for the 160 watt panel, we were in float (13.7 volts) by sunset.

During the evening, I used the lap top computer, charged cell phones and the wifi hot spot about .6 amps of LED lights and watched TV in the boat. We ended up with a deficit of about -7 amp hours at sunrise. Yesterday was cloudy and even rained for about an hour. The boat stayed in the marina all day with the fridge on, lap top and other electronics and a little TV used. The fridge turned on a sunrise and ran up the charge deficit to -9,5 amp hours before the solar (even with the clouds) started to run the loads plus make up the deficit. By about 1 PM, I was back to a net zero amp hour use and the solar was supplying all the power. The battery voltage got up to 14.4 and then by mid afternoon was sitting at 13.7 volts float. During the morning, I even saw 10.2 amps going into the battery.

Another data point that a well placed 160 watt panel (effort spent to reduce any shading - this panel happens to be monocrystaline but that likely doesnt matter much) is adequate for a heavy power user (electric fridge, lap top, TV). Still plenty of margin in use and Im also being very easy on my batteries.

I think I did lose a little boat speed by putting this panel up after sailing with nearly the same set of boats over two seasons (one without the panel, one with the panel). Other than a slight loss in speed, I really didnt notice any other negative effects. Trailered at up to 75 mph with the panel all set up.. not the slightest problem.

 

[williamtl]

Last year while trailering the Mac a screw pulled out on the Bimini rail (you read that right). I couldn’t believe it was just screwed in. Well, I thought I’ll fix that and just bolt it back on. That wouldn’t work because I apparently don’t have enough joints in my arm to get where the nut would go. Not one to give up, I decided to put access hatches in and reclaim the space. If you want to debate the floatation removal please join one of the current threads as this is not the one . I’ll be adding to one of those threads.

I put in four access hatches, two on each side. Thumbnails attached Used half a role of butyl tape to seal em up.

 

[My Mistress]

That wouldn’t work because I apparently don’t have enough joints in my arm to get where the nut would go.

At times, I wonder how that foam was originally put in there. I'm not too worried about removing old foam myself. Defender Marine has a nice 2-part kit to pour in replacement foam in those hard to get at places.

 

[timebandit]

Looks like a great fix.

 

[ghochgraf]

The weather has finally warmed up and the rains stopped. So I got out some paints. Eclipse's logo now graces the aft sides, and blue anti-fouling paint on the bottom. Getting ready for a summer of sailing!

 

[My Mistress]

ghochgraf, What are those two blue thingies on the bottom of your hull?

 

[ghochgraf]

ghochgraf, What are those two blue thingies on the bottom of your hull?

Eclipse suffers from too much weather helm. Especially when the wind picks up. Trimming the rig didn't help much, so I added a pair of skegs. She behaves much better now.

 

[walt]

Anyone sailing yet??

Sailboat/ dog pictures from what may have been our last sail until next fall (on the old 26S, Hobie TI is getting dusted off now)... First picture is from a very pleasant over 10 mile downwind sail from near Shelter Island to Chula Vista less than a month ago. Centerboard was pulled up completely into the hull and under auto pilot for almost the whole run.

 

[RussC]

We've had a couple day trips in 2018 on the little "Aye Pod", but only one overnighter on the Mac so far. BUT, that one overnighter was a spectacular two days. one of the most enjoyable trips we've ever had . We even enjoyed ample sailing both days .

 

[vizwhiz]

Last year while trailering the Mac a screw pulled out on the Bimini rail (you read that right). I couldn’t believe it was just screwed in. Well, I thought I’ll fix that and just bolt it back on. That wouldn’t work because I apparently don’t have enough joints in my arm to get where the nut would go. Not one to give up, I decided to put access hatches in and reclaim the space. If you want to debate the floatation removal please join one of the current threads as this is not the one . I’ll be adding to one of those threads.

I put in four access hatches, two on each side. Thumbnails attached Used half a role of butyl tape to seal em up.

I ended up epoxying small squares of plastic (cutting board) to the outside of the boat and screwing into that. I had drilled a number of holes in each location trying to get something to hold onto the thin fiberglass in those locations. I wasn’t willing to drill large holes or bolt the bimini on...

 

[williamtl]

On one of my last overnights discovered rain water coming through the flotation hold above the v-berth. ... then removed all of the deck hardware (3 cleats and 4 stachion bases. ...
Also, while in the v-berth, cut a hole to make an access panel to the bow.

Some follow up pictures of the backers behind the rebedded hardware. A friend help me cut them out of some stainless steel sheets I had.

I reclaimed a drawer front to use to cover the new access hole I made. I used a trick I learned from a grandfather clock I inherited to avoid hinges. There is a shallow slot at the bottom edge and a tall or deep slot in the upper edge. Slide the door top in as far as it will go and then the bottom goes in and slides down in place. Reverse to remove.

 

[ghochgraf]

With this post, I guess I must join the 'don't need foam' club. I've added port and starboard cockpit lockers. They both have drains and are vented. I fiberglassed the inside to separate them from the cabin.

On the port side is the fuel tank and the aft anchor rode. Starboard is sunscreen, water bottles, spare pfd, etc.

I also added a bracket for the aft anchor. I've found the aft anchor very helpful in tight situations, and having to dredge it out of the bottom of the lazaret in an emergency doesn't work. Now it's ready to deploy quickly.
A few weeks ago we came to a marina to pick up a friend, but were caught off guard by the currents pulling us too fast in to the dock. I was barely able to get the aft anchor out of the laz, deployed and cleated before we hit, but now I can do that quickly.

 

[THECUSCUS]

Nice lockers, and welcome to the "club"

 

[williamtl]

I fiberglassed the inside

Any chance you could talk more about this? I’m considering this same modification. If to much to type, maybe we could arrange by private message to have a short chat on the phone. I know, completely old school.