Yes even when there is no wind it’s still a bit tricky in tight situations. On the Mac and others I have occasionally backed in instead of bow first especially into a head wind, this stops the wind vaneing a fair bit.

I have dreamed of a bow thruster……..

DownSouth (Victoria)

Yes that is what I was looking for maximum range. I realised it was a Suzuki after looking a bit more closely!

Do you have waves/swell or tide where you sail? How effective is the 9.9 at pushing into wind etc.

Thanks for your pictures and advice.

DownSouth

I just want to give a vote of support for this idea. I switched my Suzuki 60 (which had a blown head gasket at 1400 hours) and 6 hp kicker for a 20 and a 9.9. https://i.postimg.cc/CR83WCmF/20241030-204840.jpg How does it go with your new motors? Is the 9.9 a high thrust type? Regards DownSouth

A 9.9 gives you none of these, it just gives you a boat under power that is the same as any sailboat yet is a slower boat under sail than almost any other sailboat. (I know there are those who argue the mac can sail fast, but you need to look no further than its PHRF rating to know this is not true...

I am in a similar position in Australia. Our original Honda 50hp works okay but I have never trusted 20+ year old outboards as my crew has never responded well to being potentially stranded in difficult locations... A new 50 is a lot if money in Australia so I have been looking at smaller motors. It...

It would be a big change but a proper all roller trailer is best, it allows the boat to roll off into the water without major submerging. On one boat we had a sling for the bow with wire back to pulleys and back to the winch so we could winch the boat off. Even worked on dry land both on and off the...

Ah that explains it! Must have been fun....

Mine was loose foam behind plexiglass panel, just a game of Tetris to get it all back in.....

DownSouth

We used an inflatable 2 person Canadian canoe as a dinghy.

It worked fine but was had to get from the canoe to the boat as it wasn’t as stable as a proper dinghy in swell.

Still it was fairly cheap and small when deflated.

DownSouth

I was planning to replace my bow pulpit on my '01 26x, I didn't realize there was so much foam underneath the pulpit mounting area, looks like I'll have to rethink my approach. For not having done this before it looks great. Karl I accessed all the nuts for the pulpit by removing the foam blocks th...

No mention so far what speed you are attempting to tow it at? My experience towing an Achilles tender is a line to each side ring at the bow joined together then lines to each cleat on the 26 stern. Like in Russ’ picture in an earlier post. Adjust length to sit the dinghy on the back of the wave beh...

Thanks for the work on the trip report Richard - very interesting.

Down South
Southern Victoria

Looks pretty good to me! I am about to replicate your efforts though thick plastic is harder to find here so I may just use plywood.

DownSouth

Fair discussion in this article. http://www.fxsails.com/article_loosefoot.php I don't have any trouble reefing mine. I just roll it up. :wink: Supposed to be as easy to Reef conventionally though. https://i.postimg.cc/5Nx2cRYb/C0739637-FF47-4360-A7-A8-7-BF5455436-B9.jpg But, I do need to add outhau...

Yes I'm not surprised at the weight - it is why the original Steel Mac trailers are probably not legal in Australia - mine had something like 1400kg stamped on it - clearly overloaded....

My last 21ft Plywood Hartley came in over 2000kg....

DownSouth

Down South asked: Looks good guys, does the LT-4 handle the 2hp engine okay? Does it allow full power without bending the rear part of the dinghy? I have a Honda 2.3 air cooled and was thinking of buying this dinghy. Yes, it does nicely. Thanks for the advice, much appreciated I have ordered one (h...