Sailing a Mac M

[oreana1234]

Tomorrow, I am going sailing on an M model for the first time. I went out last week on the boat, but the weather was so crappy, we did not sail, only motored around.

This boat has a furler, and seems have a complete set of equipment onboard. I plan on mostly sailing broad reaches until the new owner gets the hang of it. I have not sailed a boat with twin rudders before, should be interesting. We will make sure the reefing system is in place and functioning before we leave the dock. I noticed that the boat has an Idasailor daggerboard.

I would really appreciate any recommendations for sailing this boat from you other M owners. I am doing this because I made a commitment to help new sailors through my sailing club, and this owner is new to boating and sailing, pretty much at square one. I may not be the best instructor, but I am trying to impart as much of my experience as possible. John S

 

[oreana1234]

OK I just got done with my M sail, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by how well the boat did. The boat sailed very high into the wind, but in light airs it was a little difficult to get the bow to come around. It did heel easily. The rudders will stall and round up in too much heel, but for the most part, I had a lot of fun sailing this model of Mac.

This boat has vang, outhaul, movable jib cars, roller furling, swiveling mast, 100 % headsail on furler and pretty standard mainsail. We were sailing in anything from 0mph up to about 15 in gusts.

I took some time while waiting for the trailer to be dunked at the ramp, and drove the boat into a series of high speed turns under outboard power- no surprises there, but a lot of hull roll.

I have turned the boat over to my friend now telling him he is quite capable of making all of the mistakes necessary to learn how to sail. I believe he will be able to safely take the boat out on his own.

 

[Robspan]

Did the boat have the standard size steering wheel? If so, how was the steering under sail? Those small wheels look like they'd require quite a bit of effort to steer.

 

[oreana1234]

It did have the small wheel. The sailing was easy, but with the outboard hooked up to the steering, it was sometimes a stiff turn of the wheel. I guess the wheel has to be smaller to allow access to the aft cockpit. I noticed a chunk of gelcoat had come off of one of the stock rudders, the owner will probably have to upgrade to the Ida rudders eventually.