MacGregorSailors.com

And here I thought I was good at obscure references.

Well I guess Roger realised that the X locker is ridiculously shallow and impractical? That's probably accurate, or close enough for government work. The next size up allows a steel or aluminium anchor that should hold in almost any blow, though bottom types and anchoring conditions (wind/current s...

The one thing I've noted about anchors, is the variety of answers of which is the best... and I don't mean for a specific condition. That I'd expect... but for every best, there is someone dissing it. Ohhh, you don't know the half of it. :D Anchor type is one of those third-rail issues like every e...

I've always like the look of the Jambo - brings to mind images of Neptune's trident.

Tom. Your term paper was short and sweet. Here are the Cliff Notes via West Marine. our results still confirm the rule of thumb that every boat should carry at least three different anchor designs and weights to deal with a wide variety of bottom types. F There ya go. And for the record, I keep two...

Very interesting article and also very odd - That the Fortress did so well and the West Marine carbon-copy did so poorly. It seems strange that the geometry being so similar (especially compared to how different the other makes were) and the only real difference mentioned was the sharpened edges. E...

You may be able to pull start it with a weak battery. No battery, or a shorted or dead cell, will likely be a problem. That's what I was thinking - not enough juice to spin it, but enough to run the fuel pump (if any) and electronics. I remember a discussion about pull starting back a year or two, ...

I have a Fortress FX-7, which is their smallest. It's only 4 lb, but it's aluminium. And that small anchor holds like nobody's business. You do have to change the fluke angle between sand (32°) and mud (45°), and the wrong angle doesn't work very well in the wrong bottom. Veeery interesting. I didn...

It wouldn't surprise me at all if your motor won't run without a battery. In the instruction manual for my battery switch, it explicitly says to not turn the switch to zero while the engine is running. It's an EFI system, so no surprise that it doesn't run without a battery. Can't pull start one ei...

I have a Fortress FX-7, which is their smallest. It's only 4 lb, but it's aluminium. And that small anchor holds like nobody's business. You do have to change the fluke angle between sand (32°) and mud (45°), and the wrong angle doesn't work very well in the wrong bottom. I've had it stuck in mud wh...

I've been on this site since 1/10/2004, and I'm only a captain. I should be at least a 2 star admiral by now. Why is that? One of life's mysteries. Well, lets see - at an average of 0.16 posts/day, and 15 posts short of “Admiral” status, that means we can expect a promotion in about 94 days. At the...

Since you're unsure about the rigging, I would suggest only trying to connect the inner side stays, or lower shrouds, and the forestay only. Connect the side stays with the mast pinned to the tabernacle or hinge plate, then with help, walk the mast up and pin the forestay. You can then stare at it a...

Marine VHF uses 50 ohm coax. Not the same as TV antenna coax RG-58 and RG-6 (75 ohm). RG-8X I believe is the most common on small boats, though there is the thinner, cheaper (with higher signal loss) RG-58. There’s an even heavier coax for marine VHF (don’t recall the designation), but I suspect the...

And check these out... https://i.postimg.cc/XrsbsH1P/20201125-162449-Small.jpg That light looks amber to me. What light is it, and where is it? Edit: Oh, wait - I recognize the little boos it’s mounted to. It’s the stern light. Is that color just the camera and/or my iPad? Should be white, of course.

I added an LED anchor light on top of the mast, and also added a diode in the masthead light wiring, so by reversing the polarity of the two conductors up the mast, I get either masthead or anchor light." Erm... To me an anchor light is a white light. The red and green are navigation lights. So wha...