I just took my 81 Mac 22 for her first sail today. She seemed to be a little loose with more side slip than I would expect. I believe I had the center board down all the way but I honestly wasn’t sure. As I came in there was a guy directly behind me with a Mac 25 . He asked me if I had filled my water ballast. News to me. I wasn’t aware Mac 22’s had such a thing. He explained that there was a valve just aft of the aft berth where he turns a valve. Any help would be appreciated
Water ballast???
- Thread starter Yippee Skippee
- Start date
That is not right
The first water ballast Mac was the 26D followed by the 26S
I used to sail a Mac v 22. It was the fastest boat for the buck I’ve ever owned. And sailed like it was on a rail. You should have a very heavy (600 lb) cast iron keel. That is your ballast. Assuming your keel and rudder were all the way down, you might have blown sails.
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The first water ballast Mac was the 26D followed by the 26S
I used to sail a Mac v 22. It was the fastest boat for the buck I’ve ever owned. And sailed like it was on a rail. You should have a very heavy (600 lb) cast iron keel. That is your ballast. Assuming your keel and rudder were all the way down, you might have blown sails.
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Thanks. I kept checking the internet for answers last night and I think I didn’t have my centerboard down all the way. The sails look good so that has to be it. Thanks again!
If the 22 has the same steel keel/winch arrangement as the Mac/Ven 25 just crank the winch down until you feel no more resistance, then you know the keel is all the way down. At that point I would usually crank it slightly back to take up the tension in the keel wire.
We have a little plaque (cut out of a credit card type plastic) that has velcro attaching it near the compass that says "board down" in red on one side and "board up" in black on the other. Pretty handy when coming into shallower water. Just a thought, if you are new to a variable draft boat.
My neighbor had one with blown sails and a swollen keel. Once he got the keel sanded down we took it out on our lake and had the rail in the water. Great ride down wind but a little tough getting back. We took that boat to every big lake in NH. Great times, got me back into sailing.
I've thought about getting one of these and putting it on our keel screw when it's up. More for fun, you can definitely tell when the keel is down vs up!
My father in law worked on the flight line in the Air Force years ago. He ended up with one of those tags and handed it down to me. I've been looking for a cool application but sadly I don't have a retracting keel.
I've thought about putting one on my shore power plug after I came VERY close to backing out of the slip with it plugged in.