More Lake Powell

[walt]

I finally put together some of the pictures I took from our trip to Lake Powell up the San Juan river arm this past summer http://analogengineering.com/sail/powell/powell2009.html

Sumner and Blake (and pretty much everyone else) are much better at editorials/story than I am (what I did is about as good as it gets for me).

There are some fair sailing pictures of a 26S near the bottom. My 12 year old son volunteered to be let loose in the rafted kayaks to take pictures while we were sailing.

 

[Robspan]

If someone ever wonders why you'd want a Mac instead of a bigger boat, these pictures are a great answer.

 

[Sumner]

Great Pictures Walt and thanks for the locations. Our trip a few weeks ago was from point A to B and when we return we want to finish the lake, by going from B to C then we would like the following trips to be more like yours.

Lake Powell is really like dozens of smaller lakes all connected together by the main channel with all of the arms up various canyons that can be explored being almost like other lakes. We will try and get back down to the San Juan Arm and get to some of the great looking places you went to.

c ya and thanks again and as I mentioned before seeing your pictures of your trips years past was instrumental in our getting a Mac,

Sum and Ruth

Our Mac Pages

Mac Links

 

[walt]

Sumner, hard to believe you’ve had your boat less than one year. Id say your getting "your monies worth".. This will be a good reference for others planning trips (and just enjoyable to read) http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor-trips-1/macgregor-trips-1-index.html

Robspan, the old Mac has certainly been a good versatile boat for me for where I live and how I use it, been very happy with the boat for three years now.

 

[MrBill_FLL]

Hey Walt, beautiful photos and great trip report! -thanks for sharing!

curious, how much fuel you used, and carried. (4 stroke, right?)

seems like a lot of motoring....

 

[walt]

It is a lot of motoring but I really enjoy those trips. The kids often watch two DVD's per day, run the stereo a fair amount including using the stereo for the movie audio (and they bring there own IPODS with some stuff they consider music), wife reads, we often stop for swim breaks. Water was between about 79 to 86 degrees. Brings back good memories.. as its snowing like heck here in Denver today.

I had the GPS on most of the time and think we did 185 miles, maybe even 190 miles. I took 21 gallons of gas (5+5 on bow pulpit, +3+3+3+2). Ive got an about 1990 Honda 8 hp and I beleive Honda has only made four strokes. I used 15 gallons for the trip and with no place to re-fill, it was overall about right having 21 gallons (keeps the running out of gas stress level down). 185 miles / 15 gallons = 12.3 mpg.

I had a 20 watt solar panel plus the anemic outboard alternator and would typically run down to about a max of minus 20 amp hours per day.

 

[Blake]

Great pics Walt, thanks for posting them. We hope to do Lake Powell again. Maybe the San Juan will be on our itenerary.
You must do an incredible job of packing to fit 4(?) people and a dog plus all the camp stuff! I am curious as to what you used to cover the footwell when sleeping in the cockpit?

 

[walt]

Four people and TWO dogs... My boat is set up as a day sailer as that is mostly how I use it (sink is a table for junk as an example, real sink is just a funnel in the head area) but it seems to work "fairly comfortable" for the week. Mostly cook with the barbeque, use stove for coffee and heating soup water.

I bought a coleman tent cot and modified it to for the cockpit http://analogengineering.com/sail/powell/5847rs.jpg and it overall worked fine for the kids (no bugs at Powell) but I slept on it one night and it was a little uncomfortable for me. I hate to admit this but near the end of our trip sailing at Puite bay, I didnt secure the cot and it went over the side of the boat in about 200 foot of water.. ie, its at the bottom of Lake Powell now.

I may modify the V berth a little to extend the sleeping area on the head side (without removing the forward bulkhead). But the main thing Im going to do is to make a folding platform which simply extends for example the starboard side of the seat in the cockpit. This might just extend the seat "side ways" by 1 or 1.5 foot or so only on one side which should give a nice sleeping area composed of the actual seat plus the platform. You would just use the cockpit seat cushions to make a matress for sleeping at night. The platform (folded in half - folded dimension maybe 3.5 foot by 1.5 foot, maybe as small as 1 foot by 3 foot) would get stashed in the back berth area during the day. This will be one of several winter projects.

Blake, earlier this year, you were testing a truck tent which looked like it would have been very nice. Did this idea work out??

 

[Blake]

Truck tent

Hi Walt,
I can't say for sure how the tent will work out. I only set it up that one time in the yard. At Lake Powell, as you say, there are no bugs, so we didn't use it. I am embaressed to admit that we didn't take the Mac out again this season.
But we have another boat, a 14.5 wooden cosine wherry, and we or just I sailed in it alot this season. By the way we got another dog (against my wishes, but I have to adnit I like the little bugger). Bridgett and I took all three of them out in the little boat 2 weeks ago. I wish I had some pics of that.
I am pretty sure that it will work well, but it will be next year before I find out as the boat will be going under it's winter cover soon. I will keep you posted on it.

 

[walt]

This is the cockpit "bed" replacement. Its pretty comfortable for someone up to about 6'6". The wood peice is a hair over 8 pounds and will get stashed in the rear berth during the day. And.. it floats so wont end up on the bottom of the lake. The two boys are growing like weeds so this should be a good solution at least for a few more years.

 

[Blake]

Cockpit Bed

It looks like it should work. How are you supporting the board? Somewhere I once saw a design that used a teak cockpit floor grate as a center support for a bed. I can't remember where I saw it or exactly how it worked, but the nice thing was that the support became the grate so it was always stored in thew cockpit.

 

[walt]

In the picture of the boat, you can see where I permantly installed three shelf peices. These are made of a PVC plastic material intended for home outdoor trim. Very light weight, waterproof and should also be UV proof but Ill also paint the tops white as it looks like the sawn edge will show dirt if I dont seal it. (speaking of dirt, I could not clean the bottom the cockpit - its FROZEN in - the lake nearby will be frozen over within two weeks).

The wood peice is 9.5 inch wide by 5 feet 3 inch long and has a support on the side which doesnt rest on the shelf (also keeps the pad in place). There is a pin on the forward side to keep it from sliding out. On the back side, its kept from sliding out by a tray. It seems plenty strong and very simple.. But I did have to mount the PVC shelf peices - drilled more holes.. It will be very easy to set up. Just bring the single wood peice up from cabin, set it in place and align the pin, move the back cushion on top of the wood peice and throw on a sleeping bag. I like that I can still walk past the bed in the morning since I always get up WAY earlier than the kid does.

In another thread, I saw another interesting idea from Beam Reach which I had not seen before:

http://forums.macgregor.sailboatowners.com/album.php?albumid=669&pictureid=4437

 

[Blake]

Good stuff Walt, thanks for the extra pictures. It looks like a good system. Your snow cover in that last shot looks like our did last week. Fortunately we have had temps in the 50's this week and I went sailing with the dogs twice in the little boat!(the Mac is under her winter cover). But that was the last for me for this year. I prepped her today for new varnish and paint. I guess it is time to start thinking about skiing, but I would really rather be sailing!