Bringing Home Venture 25 "Martini Time"

[Irishguy]

Here's a picture of the maiden road voyage of our sailboat "Martini Time." We had to do quite a bit of planning and adjusting of the trailer since we were pretty inexperienced at this sort of thing. Thank goodness for careful planning and a detailed checklist… We had everything we needed for the operation. After several trial fits and lots of adjusting to the used trailer - That may or may not have been designed for the boat... She fit like a glove with just enough tongue weight to pull her safely home.

Once we got her behind the SUV it really made the truck look small and we were worried we weren't going to make it all the way home. Those two tires looked pretty heavily loaded Apparently our angel was with us last Saturday though… and we made it all the way to Trussville from Lake Guntersville without a hitch. No pun intended...

We've got a lot of work to do, but at least now I can work on her in the afternoons and I have all my tools handy and my workshop/garage only a few feet away. Our goal is to get her rewired, the hull cleaned up [Possibly painted too…] and the boat re-outfitted with new ropes and whatever fittings are needed and back in the water before July. I have already compiled a fairly detailed, comprehensive Project Management Outline. I have lots of reading to do on boat wiring, hull refinishing, sailboat rigging, etc… I still have to design and build some type of supports to temporarily get a 2100 pound boat up off the trailer and safely suspended in the air for hull sanding and painting. I also need to design some kind of rolling cradle in which to lower a 600 pound cast iron keel down onto in order to clean it of mussels and refinish it. So there will be some unique engineering problem solving on this project as well…

I will be doing lots of searching and reading on this forum, because we are new to sailboat ownership and sailing too. Any pointers to topics such as:

How to clean the bottom?
What to coat the bottom with?
How to do simple 12 volt sailboat wiring?
How to rig up all the hardware and what type of ropes to use?

... Would be much appreciated. Like I said I plan to search and read about all those topics, but any links or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for any help, and wish us luck.

 

[chipdance]

congrats!

Hey Irishguy
I was in your shoes two years ago. I had never had any practical sailing experience, but I wanted a sailboat. Found and bought a 1979 MacGregor Venture 25 locally. had a newly acquired friend who had sailed previously meet me at the lake and we took her out for a spin. I took one lesson and then started sailing her on my own. at the end of that first season the keel cable broke. The keel was up at the time. When the cable broke, the keel swung down and tore the glass around the pivot bolt. Since then I have repaired the glass around the pivot bolt, replaced the pivot bolt, replaced the keel cable and winch, cleaned painted and remounted the keel, cleaned and painted the hull, rewired the cabin, added a swim ladder, added hand rails, built new companion way hatches, remounted the mast step, replaced the foam flotation, sanded rebuilt and repainted the trailer and replaced the trailer bearings. It has been a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.
A word of advice, make sure to carefully check the keel cable, winch and pivot bolt. If any of those fail while you're on the water, it'll ruin your whole day and give you more projects than you wanted for the winter.
This forum and the MacGregorOwners.com forum have lots of knowledgeable people full of great advice and ideas.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Chip

 

[Gregg9020]

Congrats!!! I have a 1979 Venture 25. I have done MANY... TOO MANY (if you ask my wife) upgrades. One peice of advice... Do what needs to be done to make it legal and safe. Cosmetics is just that. Who really cares what it looks like if you are on the water and having fun??

I rewired mine, and it was really a snap. I replaced the stock panel and put in two one with a battery meter in it, and I have 7 or 8 circuts, and two batteries. Get all of your lights working, and a good VHF radio installed. As for lines... I would go with 3/8" even though the stock ones are 5/16" the larger line is easier on the hands, and will work w/o having to change out all of your hardware.

Cleaning the bottom, Hmm I will have to defer to someone that has done it. My bottom is very clean. If you are going to keep it on the trailer, don't put bottom paint on. Just wash well after each splash. I sail in SF Bay in California and I don't have bottom paint.

That is all I can think of right now, but keep us all in the loop and do not hesitate to ask. There is someone here that can help you. There is no dumb question here.

Gregg

 

[Irishguy]

...rewired the cabin...

Good luck and keep us posted.
Chip

Thanks for the reply... Do you have any source for a wiring diagram? I'm a little intimidated by that.

I basically want a fuse panel with:

Bow lights
Stern light
A mast light that shines down on the boat
A few interior lights
Maybe a 12V outlet or two inside the boat
Maybe a stereo
Maybe a radio. [We will mainly be sailing on Lake Guntersville, and we have cell phone coverage everywhere, so I don't know how important a VHF radio is at this point.]

My keel winch and cable look to be in excellent condition, but the keel feel a bit wobbley when it is in the up position on the trailer. I am going to have to drop it out of the boat and sandblast it and then I am going to paint it. It appears to be a solid piece of cast iron.

 

[Irishguy]

Congrats!!! I have a 1979 Venture 25. I have done MANY... TOO MANY (if you ask my wife) upgrades. One peice of advice... Do what needs to be done to make it legal and safe. Cosmetics is just that. Who really cares what it looks like if you are on the water and having fun??

I rewired mine, and it was really a snap. I replaced the stock panel and put in two one with a battery meter in it, and I have 7 or 8 circuts, and two batteries. Get all of your lights working, and a good VHF radio installed. As for lines... I would go with 3/8" even though the stock ones are 5/16" the larger line is easier on the hands, and will work w/o having to change out all of your hardware.

Cleaning the bottom, Hmm I will have to defer to someone that has done it. My bottom is very clean. If you are going to keep it on the trailer, don't put bottom paint on. Just wash well after each splash. I sail in SF Bay in California and I don't have bottom paint.

That is all I can think of right now, but keep us all in the loop and do not hesitate to ask. There is someone here that can help you. There is no dumb question here.

Gregg

Thanks for the reply.

The bottom will probably need to be painted at the water line, because we are going to keep it in a slip at the lake.

Thanks for the heads up on the rope. I had no idea what the original size was supposed to be.