The Official "What Did You Do To Your Mac Today" Thread!

[walt]

I pulled my 26S out today getting ready for a road trip. This ramp has about a 10% slope. Just before taking the boat over to the waiting trailer, I hooked up a high volume low pressure electric air mattress pump to the ballast vent port (pumps out the ballast water in around 10 minutes), then motored over to the waiting trailer.

Some of you have seen this before but I modified the stock trailer so that the stop bumper is below the winch location (stock position is above) and I have two loading rollers. The one that is way forward is needed if its a very steep ramp, it may not have done much on this ramp.

The boat was winched up to the stop one time, then pulled out. When I got up on level ground, I checked how far the bow had pulled back from the stop and it was only about 3/8 of an inch. My trailer is not perfect but its overall super easy and fast for loading this boat without any iterations of pulling forward a little then re- tightening the winch. I did do a "bump" when I stopped to take down the mast and it got rid of that last 3/8 inch gap..

 

[RussC]

Walt. have you tried winding the winch strap the opposite direction on the spool? it appears that the pull angle would be more direct if you had the strap coming off the top of the drum.
When I raised my winch ~3" it was a huge improvement in the way the boat settles into the nose block.

 

[walt]

Part of the physics of that is that the strap length remains fixed as the boat rotates with respect to the trailer as its coming up the ramp. So.. it might change things a little. You can imagine that above the strap, the boat rotates away from the upper stop position (which Im not using) but it sort of rotates towards the lower stop position. I dont have any trouble being able to winch the boat foward up to the stop with the way shown in those pictures so I really dont have any problem to solve by moving the pull vector upwards. Having those rollers up near the bow also help..

But.. it ends up being a complex problem.. maybe I should try your idea the next time I pull the boat out - which will happen two more times before the end of Feb. I also dont really have much of a problem to solve.. Ive gone from many inches of gap doing something like this to only 3/8 inch (0.375 inch) with just getting it up against the stop one time, then driving out.

When you go to different ramps with different slopes, you get more surprises..

By the way, Russ I dont know if you have seen Sumners mod with the movable stop http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor-trailer/trailer-mods-17.html

 

[BudGates]

Hopefully you don't mind a Minnesotan's opinion as I just stumbled on your thread. @BudGates I am not sure if you will be in northern, central, or southern Minnesota but location will have a lot to do on the temps you will see.

Thank you Shark. I appreciate the input. I'll be sure to keep this information in mind. Hopefully the two foot overhang, along with facing away from the predominant wind, will keep the doors from freezing up. If not, I'll find a way to deal with it. I'm not sure if Nevis is considered Central or Northern Minnesota but it's about 17 miles West of Leech Lake.

Hey when you get out here though drop me a line and perhaps we can get out for a sail. I have a C 22 and am always looking for someone to sail with.

I'll be sure to look you up once I finally retire in August. I'm anxious to sail Leech Lake, Lake Mille Lacs, and Lake of the Woods. I'll be there in April for two weeks but that's probably too early in the season. Besides, I'll be pretty busy moving and cutting down trees. (10 dead trees visible from our front porch.) Even so I still hope to get the dinghy out on Island Lake a few times while I'm there.

 

[LakeShark]

Well since your north of brained I would consider you in northern MN. You'll love sailing in MN there are not many sail boats and the fishing boats stick mainly near the shore or debris where the fish are so most of the time you will have the lake to yourself. Mille lacs is a great sailing lake because it's huge but it's shallow so wind chop can come up quickly but in your boat it should be no problem. I hope your move goes well and welcome to Minnesota!

Oh and by the way I am a former Californian as well so be prepared for most to think you won't survive the first winter. However it's not as bad as it sounds!

 

[BudGates]

Well since your north of brained I would consider you in northern MN. You'll love sailing in MN there are not many sail boats and the fishing boats stick mainly near the shore or debris where the fish are so most of the time you will have the lake to yourself. Mille lacs is a great sailing lake because it's huge but it's shallow so wind chop can come up quickly but in your boat it should be no problem. I hope your move goes well and welcome to Minnesota!

Oh and by the way I am a former Californian as well so be prepared for most to think you won't survive the first winter. However it's not as bad as it sounds!

Thank you for the warm welcome. I haven't seen Lake of the Woods yet but we did stop to see both Lake Mille Lacs and Leech Lake. They both look amazing. I think I can get used to the chop. I hope my wife can. She grew up in Bemidji and has been wanting to move back to MN for a long time. We were planning to look for a home near Brainerd. We even had an appointment with a realtor there. On our way from Detroit Lakes to Brainerd we stopped for lunch in Park Rapids. I picked up a local realtor's brochure sitting next to our table and gave them a call. The house we ended up with wasn't one from the brochure but when we saw it we knew that this was the place for us. We submitted a bid that afternoon.

 

[My Mistress]

I remember Mille Lacs from when I visited a relative in that neck of the woods back in '73. My first thought was that it was shallow, real shallow, but Mac's should be able to handle it.
What really sticks in my memory were the bazillions of mosquito's and the huge black and yellow spiders

 

[BudGates]

I remember Mille Lacs from when I visited a relative in that neck of the woods back in '73. My first thought was that it was shallow, real shallow, but Mac's should be able to handle it.
What really sticks in my memory were the bazillions of mosquito's and the huge black and yellow spiders

Looking at a chart of Mille Lacs right now. The maximum depth is only 42 feet, which is relatively shallow for a lake that size. The bottom is also relatively flat with the vast majority ranging between 20 and 38 feet. I only see two small areas where it has a depth of 15 feet reaching a mile from shore. Although the flat bottom lake is quite susceptible to wind chop, navigation by any boat with less than a 15 foot draft should be no problem. Just be careful close to the shore.

The spiders and mosquitoes, however, may drive me away.

 

[LakeShark]

This site may help with knowing lake depth. https://maps1.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefinder/mobile/
Just search by map and it will give you depth on most of the lakes in the state. As for the mosquitoes just spray on the deet and hope for a wind. They usually stay away from the wind and deet is the most effective repellant I have found. Some stores even sell 90% deet which is meant for application over clothing only but is pretty effective (and illegal in California).

 

[walt]

Yesterday.. Valentines day sail on Lake Mohave. Very spirited sail with reefed main and 110 jib! Wife stayed in the cabin and was "mostly" a good sport as I was enjoying a great sail (maybe she is smiling in the picture??).. At one point a gust hit and the one of the dogs flew from one side of the aft quarter berth the other.. We are camped on the boat for a few days.

 

[BudGates]

(and illegal in California).

I think breathing is illegal here in the Socialist Republic of California.

 

[Sumner]

Yesterday.. ... Very spirited sail with reefed main and 110 jib! ...

I rotated the picture...

... to get the horizon more horizontal. You guys had a good heel going. Looks like it was a lot of fun,

Sumner
============================================================
1300 miles to The Bahamas and Back in the Mac...
Endeavour 37 Mods...
MacGregor 26-S Mods...http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/endeavour-main/endeavour-index.html
Mac Trips to Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Canada, Florida, Bahamas

 

[walt]

Potty break for the dogs yesterday at Lake Mohave

 

[walt]

A friend took this picture of my 26S last week

 

[RussC]

A friend took this picture of my 26S last week

I'm getting the impression that Mohave is a very windy lake?

 

[walt]

I'm getting the impression that Mohave is a very windy lake?

Im not sure I would call it "very windy" but it is a reliably windy place. If you like sailing reefed.. its good as you probably would be often reefed. Four days in a row it was windy and then we left a little early as the rains that hit S. California came through a little later. I think its a little windier than either Lake Havasu or Lake Mead. Back in the big windsurfing days, that area was somewhat of a winter/ spring sailing destination because you could always count on windy conditions.

We enjoyed staying there for a days.. The picture is of Cottonwood cove (where we kept the boat) on the Nevada side.

 

[walt]

My main sailboat season is about to end just as most of yours is about to begin.. I post way too many pictures.. but a couple more from the last couple days at Havasu. Less than one week left in the slip..

 

[justsomeguy]

I post way too many pictures..

Hey, at least they're in focus.

In her Mexican slip. We didn't go quite far out enough to see humpbacks yesterday, so will try today.

 

[justsomeguy]

Success!



And I think I broke my spinnaker run record too. Please stand by.

 

[justsomeguy]

Please stand by.

Ayup. Beat it by about 0.9 nautical miles.