The ETEC 50 was a great motor -- when it was running. Loved it to death (almost) But when it stopped working, it was a major PITA, as you well know. I decided to bite the bullet last year and went 4 stroke. I dunno... hit a bunch of bumps right off the bat (the local Yamaha dealer who installed it d...

I have posted an aluminum one for sale in "Ads". Willing to negotiate the price
Thank you!

That is correct. It's an X. The aluminum brackets look like those in Tuxonpup's pics

If memory serves, the aluminum brackets that cracked and bent were simply held in place by a vertical axle. We didn't have to remove the plate that goes against the fiberglass wall. That was still in good condition. It could be done easily in waist-deep water. Not hard at all. (It was definitely eas...

Can't hurt. We keep a spare pair in the bilge and they truly came in handy in the Bahamas. One morning, the water was so incredibly transparent, that we forgot to keep a keen eye on the depth. At some point, while sailing serenely, the boat got stuck in the shallows and ended up teetering on three p...

On the contrary, I think it's kind of bland and generic. The name Chat GPT says it all: it's based on informal chats culled from all over the internet, bundled together, and made available in a second. You ask 10 knowledgeable people what they think about the Mac, then ask 100, then ask 10,000 or 10...

Ditto! Happy New Year, everyone and fair winds
March

Ix neigh wrote:
Ehhhhh. If it’s good we would.

I fully agree with Ix. Water people are used to holding their breath, but this was a tad too long.

Sure! We toyed around with a different approach: a "cage" on top of the main engine, and the auxiliary attached to it. It would solve plenty of problems (like, reaching for the throttle, turning the boat, even filling up the tiny gas tank while en route...) The problem is the short shaft. ...

Could you use a dinghy with that Honda motor and lash it to the side of the mac as a "tug"? Tried to do that a couple of times and it's a royal pain in the butt. The inertia of the big boat is too great. Now maybe the crew did not know how to steer the Mac while I was puttering alongside ...

My rub-rail is notched in several places, but I have patched it with gobs of adhesive that still hold. Peeling it off is easy--but replacing it rightly... the idea scares the bejeezus out of me. I recall having read too many horror entries about that--it's a lengthy, major project and I would spend ...

With roller furler, or just bare bones?

I agree! Very well put!

It really depends on what you call 'rigging'. If it's simply raising the mast, that can be done fairly quickly, especially of you have two people. In our case (I have a X) 'rigging' also comprises: moving the fridge on board, attaching the anchors, putting the bimini on, snapping on the cockpit cush...

It happened to me, too. The 26X has two cleats on starboard side: one for the centerboard, the other for the jib sheets and I typically cleat both--just in case. However, last summer, they came undone and I dragged the centerboard, too, for several miles (it couldn't have been longer than that or I ...