pop top

[Sumner]

That's an awesome idea Sumner, I'm totally gonna try that next time I'm out at anchor and it starts getting warm.

Do you have a cover? the sides have to be closed for it to work, but one could makeup some fast cheap sides kind of like what we did with the towel.

We were out in high 80 deg. weather in April where it was hot in the boat without the deflector, but with it we had to take it down near sunset as it was feeling too cold below. At night everything is closed up though except for the screened areas.

We never had the bug problem we thought we would have when we were there in March and April with the exception of down at Little Shark river in the Everglades where they were terrible the night we were there. We went below right at sunset and had no problems in the boat, but I had to put on long sleeves and a bug net hat to motor out of there at sunrise..

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/FL-spring-2011/FL-Spring-11-16.html

.... North of there in the daytime no problem and at night with the cover on no problem. If Ruth wouldn't of added the front and rear screens to the cover it would of been very hot in the boat though and the screened hatach also helps a lot,

Sum

 

[MrBill_FLL]

I have nylon line stung between the stb and port poptop uprights, and use clothes pins and towels to direct or block wind, as warranted

 

[Chris & Lenore]

I motor with it up - never sailed with it up but in regard to the boom vang question - a full width traveller will give virtually the same control. I have both but stopped using the vang. I have it available if needed but it just sits there...
I'm fussy about sail shape so if it didn't work I'd have the vang back on in a blink.

Food for thought.

Chris

 

[walt]

Same for me.. traveler gets used more than the vang however I just have the vang on a quick connect, easy to remove to put up the pop top.

I made my cover from a discarded power boat cover and use it during the winter in Arizona so its main use is to keep the inside of the boat warm rather than bugs out. I like this setup, converts the boat between a fairly nice sailboat to a fairly nice "RV" mode. Lots of room inside when the pop top is up.

One thing about a well designed water ballast boat (and I think Macreggor did a good job on the design) is that the boat needs to be able to heel a lot without letting water into the boat/cockpit. When the boat is at a high heel, the center of boyancy starts to move up the side of the boat and this increases the righting moment between the center of boyancy and the water ballast - which then really wants to bring the boat back on its feet. The 26S iis very good at this with the pop top up or down. In all the years of sailing this boat Ive never had any water come in the cockpit. So its wise to sail with the pop top down (and I just prefer sailing the boat with the pop top down), you will have to decide on your own the safety risk. I did plenty of sailing with the pop top 1/2 way up.