Hello. I'm a new sailor and a new owner of a '85 MacGregor 25, not much used, but not well cared for the last few years. I already know I have to refinish the swing keel, and it appears the electrical system needs total retrofit. Anyone out there who can suggest the best way to set up my electrical...

When you drop the keel, carefully examine the pivot bolt hole for wear and damage. Cast iron is a fairly soft metal, and the pivot hole on these keels often "wallers" out (becomes oblong in shape, rather than perfectly round). Such a condition is dangerous to the keel, and should be repai...

Oh yeah... Something else I have already done is to rebuild the carbs on the old 1980's Honda 100. Now she purrs like kitten. Good old honda motors! I would have never believed that many spiders could call home to an outboard motor. I was finding spiders in that thing for days and days. Apparently W...

This is a good BB for information. But are you familiar with http://www.trailersailors.com and http://www.macgregorowners.com ? Those other boards have a lot more subscribers with older Mac's. I have a 91', and I frequent all the boards. You'll find more owners with boats just like yours who can he...

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 f...

Thaks for the replies so far folks... I started my fist project this weekend... rebuilding the rudder. The previous owner had just left the rudder in the water and the lower portion was rotted pretty bad. I took it off the boat and dismantled everything. The tiller and the upper wooden portion of th...

Thanks for the reply... I wasn't really questioning the quality of items from Harbor Freight. I have bought many things from there and I realize that what they have for sale is kind of hit or miss. No biggie... You Just have to go in there with open eyes.

Hey Folks, I'm not sure if this is the proper forum or not, but what the heck here goes... My lovely first mate and I just bought a very nice 1974 Venture 25'. It has a ton of stuff that goes along with the purchase: Life jackets, A main sail, a Jib, and a Genoa, all in good condition. It has a very...