Help with my venture 23

Apr 8, 2017
10
MacGregor Venture Tacoma
Also am i wrong in that i have a venture. Not a venture of newport? I see from other material and just my own observation that the venture of newport was manufactured in the 80s and my boat is of the mid 70s vintage. (1976 to be exact.) Seems they are two different boats. Or is mine just rigged a lil diffrent.
 
Jun 9, 2008
1,771
- -- -Bayfield
MacGregor made a Venture Newport and if my memory serves me right, it was a cutter rig, had a teak pin rail around the cockpit to make it look a bit more salty. They are two different boats made by the same company.
 
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Jan 19, 2010
12,362
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
Venture was also used on the Mac 21 and 22. My sail had a V22 on it to denote venture 22.
 
Jul 22, 2011
146
Mariner Yacht Co.(NH) Mariner 28 Atlantic Highlands, NJ
I think Macgregor originally sold boats under the Venture name. My 2-22 was actually a Venture 2-22, although everyone called it a Macgregor. The late 70's they started calling them Macgregors.
The Venture 23 was called Venture of Newport, designed to look like a pilot cutter. If you search the Macregor forum for Venture of Newport, one of the threads has the original brochure posted.
If I remember the story, Roger designed the 19 as a graduate school project. He was working at Ford as an engineer and started building sailboats as a hobby, thus the venture. The sailboats took off and ended up with building boats up to 65 feet and even a catamaran.
Usually the Macgregor haters have never owned one, while the former owners have a soft spot in their hearts.
They are fast, good sailing boats IF they are tuned properly. Problem is most Mac owners are first time buyers and never get them sorted out. Imho the best "upgrade" you can make is an idasailor (ruddercraft) rudder. The foils on my boat were foils in name only!
lou
 
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Jan 19, 2010
12,362
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
My V22-2 was very fast. And I had a main with two reef points and I had three head sails. So I could balance the sails for all but the really bad stuff. I often sailed comfortably in 25 mph winds and have been out in 35 mph winds with relative security. Here is a photo of me blowing past a Cat 27 :)

New Image.JPG
 
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Apr 8, 2017
10
MacGregor Venture Tacoma
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Last question on this thread. What do i have for sails? Huge thanks to this site and the amazing info I've gained
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,995
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Kaiser,
The white is your main. The yellow and white/blue are jibs (fore sails).
The main appers to have slugs that would slide in a slot on your mast.
The fore sails look to have hanks. They attach to your forestay (clip on to front wire). From the image the white/blue sail appears taller than the yellow. You would need to attach them to the boat to see if they fit.
Is there a noticeable difference in the weight of the two fore sails?
 
Jan 19, 2010
12,362
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
jssailem pointed out the fact that your two fore sails have different luffs. Is your boat clipper rigged? Do you have to fore stays? If so, then you put the larger sail on the most forward stay and the smaller on the inner stay. When the wind picks up, you drop the larger of the two fore sails.

It also looks like you do not have reef points in your main. You might have one of the roller booms that MacGregors had on a lot of those small Macs. I had one on my Mac 22-2. If that is correct, there will be a tang on the goosneck of the boom with a thumb screw in the tang (goosneck = connection hardware for boom and mast). The thumb screw rests in the groove of the mast when inserted. If you take out the thumb screw, you can rotate the boom and roll up some of the main sail when the wind gets too strong. Replace the thumb screw and the boom stops rolling

Here is a pic of the tang I'm talking about
upload_2017-4-13_8-54-3.png


And here you can see how my main is rolled up some... in this pic, I was about to let it all out in that pic but you can roll out as much or as little as you like and then reset the thumb screw, leaving some of the main rolled up on the boom.

boom.jpg
 
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Jul 22, 2011
146
Mariner Yacht Co.(NH) Mariner 28 Atlantic Highlands, NJ
Yes, the V23 was cutter rigged. There are 2 fore stays, thus 2 fore sails.
Lou
 
Jan 22, 2008
198
Montgomery 17, Venture of Newport, Mirror sailing dinghy, El Toro sailing dinghy Mound, MN -- Lake Minnetonka
Congratulations! You have a great boat, a real classic little ship. The boat has the same interior as the Venture/Macgregor 22 but the rig and profile are patterned after the pilot cutters of the 1890s. The rig may be "old fashioned" but the boat is very fast, faster than any other Venture! I have been sailing my 1974 Macgregor Venture of Newport Chiquita for almost 40 years.

The smaller yellow sail is the jib and goes on the outer forestay. The blue striped sail is the staysail and goes on the inner stay. The yellow jib is the first sail that should be dropped as the wind pipes up.

As originally rigged, the boat had a single backstay that was offset on the transom to allow the tiller to swing. It did limit its arc a little bit. It may or may not have had pigtail to hold the boom up. If so, it should never be used with the sail up. It is no substitute for a proper topping lift which most of us have retrofitted to our boats.

You will find all the information you need, as well as hundreds of pictures of Venture 23s in various stages of restoration, at the Venture Newport Yahoo website: www.groups.yahoo.com/group/Venturenewport

You can ask questions on the forum or search the archived posts. Be sure to browse both the Files section and the Pictures.

Henry
 
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Apr 8, 2017
10
MacGregor Venture Tacoma
Thank you. Wonderful information. I love my baby poo yellow boat. As i have two old Mercedes of the same or similar color. I know my boom has been extended. This is where im coming into issues. I had a single rear stay and just dont see how it would work.
 
Jan 22, 2008
198
Montgomery 17, Venture of Newport, Mirror sailing dinghy, El Toro sailing dinghy Mound, MN -- Lake Minnetonka
You definitely appear to have a non-OEM boom. I don't have access to measure mine right now but I think it is around 8-1/2 feet long. Bend on your mainsail and stretch the foot on the boom as tight as it will go. Add about 6" and cut the boom there.

Check out my pictures on the links in my signature below for some other mods you might want to make in the future.
 
Jan 19, 2010
12,362
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
@HEINZIR
That is a very sharp looking boat. The tan-bark sails really adds to the overall visual.
 
Jan 22, 2008
79
Gulf 29 Little Current, ON
Venture was also used on the Mac 21 and 22. My sail had a V22 on it to denote venture 22.
The company switched branding from Venture to MacGregor. We owned the last "Venture Newport VN23" made and it had a MacGregor decal on it.
 
Jan 19, 2010
12,362
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
I've seen people call them MacGregor-Ventures. I guess you cover your basses that way...:biggrin:
 
Oct 15, 2017
1
Venture 23 Belhaven
I have a 73' venture of Newport, 23 ft. The boom is 9ft., Mast is 28'. Boat is being parted out, she's a basket case that was given too me so if you still need a boom I'll be selling it cheap. I love the hull lines so the boat will be rehabbed into a cruiser.