Comments on used boat please

[eric3a]

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[RickJ]

You guys need one of these:

Yeah - and standing headroom for a midget

The most popular size range over here for trailer yachts (i.e. boats with some kind of accomodation as opposed to overgrown dingies) seems to be around 18 - 23 ft. A lot of boats over 20ft are actually wider than a Mac 26 though!

But nothing of comparable price has the big-motor capability of the Macs AFAICS. Around here in the Solent there are routinely tidal currents up to 4kts. If you have to rely on a little kicker to go against the tide at the wrong time the best you do is stand still!

That's one reason the big engine is important to me. The other reason is just being able to go faster than other boats

Cheers

[Rob Roy]

Hi Rick

Congratulations - I know that across the pond Macgregors cost half but what you negotiated has to be the best deal ever by UK standards. It certainly leaves you plenty of margin to sort out the engine (if need be) plus anything else.

As for the rainwater leaks, because the boat is double skinned you will not find signs of water around the problem. It is neatly & invisibly guided to the bilge. So far we've failed the "fix it in 5 minutes test" on our leaks but further validated Murphy's Law by hosing all suspect areas (fuel lockers, pedestal, windows, fittings) without a drop dripping into the boat. However a light overnight drizzle always does the trick! As you said, that's what winter is for.

The is a wonderful day boat (& OK for the odd overnight) but too expensive to keep up the yoga classes so you can fold yourself into 3 to use the head.

Happy Mac sailing

[RickJ]

too expensive to keep up the yoga classes so you can fold yourself into 3 to use the head.

Being 6ft tall, maybe not the boat for me then

Yes, I'm happy with the deal on the 26X - it leaves me enough to buy a decent car to tow it home with! I shall be shopping for a 4wd vehicle later this week.

Before I even do that I'm going to get all the perishable gear out of it and take it home to dry, and use a small 12V bilge pump to empty out the water. Finding the leaks will probably keep my spare moments busy for most of the winter

What do you use to seal leaks around the deck etc? As an initial fix I was planning to use ordinary silicone sealant, but is there better stuff for this purpose?

Cheers

[Rob Roy]

Hi Rick

On the subject of leaks the best thing to do is take the laptop to bed There are excellent discussions on this forum which will keep you amused for hours & give very sound advice.
I was yearning for an for years but was reluctant to replace the because of the towing. However trailer sailing is much harder than Roger Macgregor would have you believe (which is why our predecessors were keen to sell). We tend to moor the boat somewhere for the whole season & either rent a van or borrow man & land rover to transport her (rather than buy a 4wd which would be needed only a couple of times a year). I admire our friends in the States who tow their Macs 1000 miles (like from here to Greece) for a weekend of sailing.

Cheers

[RickJ]

Hi Rob

I've realised that towing it around all the time is not realistic, so I shall have to work out what suits me. My current favoured option is to dry-park it at a marina with a suitable slipway, this is cheaper than a mooring and of course it can be parked mast-up with sails covered.

Launching and recovery should be fairly simple (this is what the previous owner did at Bucklers Hard), though it still needs a decent car to pull it up the slipway. My car's due for replacement anyway so this is a good excuse to get something organised!

If I find that's still too much hassle I might end up getting a swinging mooring for the summer months - all these things are yet to be discovered!

Cheers

[bastonjock]

ive decided on a swinging mooring,my general plan is to moor my boat at Wells next the sea,i learned the hard way that finding a suitable slipway is not that easy,i do however intend to trail my mac further afield,ive got desires on the doing the west coast of Scotland.

so far ive only had her on the river,its enjoyable and part of the mac,s versatility,but i want to go sailing

im a total novice,sailing has been an ambition for a long time and this year i decided to do it,ive done some courses and im currently doing the Day skipper theory before i go to Teneriffe to do the practicle in feb

as for a suitable towing car,i have a Pajero(shogun) its heavy on the fuel but you can offset that by putting rapeseed oil into the tank

as for landrovers etc,great towing cars but i think thay are a wee bit unreliable myself

have you guys heard of the Macgregor owners assosiation in the UK?

[Frank C]

. . . as for a suitable towing car,i have a Pajero(shogun) its heavy on the fuel but you can offset that by putting rapeseed oil into the tank

Very Interesting! .... but really?? Is veggie oil widely available over there?

I'm just about to buy a new diesel pickup. The new models from GM are "biodiesel ready" but I don't think there's much of it to be found ... yet. I'm sure it will become a standard to mix about 20 percent with the petroleum, but I doubt we'll see much savings because of it.

[bastonjock]

the more modern engines are a bit more complex but i do know this for sure,in the summer i mix 20% deisel to 80% straight out of the supermarket rapeseed oil,wheni picked up my boat i got through 120 liters of veggy oil and 60 liters of diesel,this works out at a saving of £60.00.

Ive added a few items to my engine to help it run on veggy,i have a VOW2 heater and a fuel cat

the truck smells a bit like a deep fat frier but with diesel now £1.03 a liter and veggy oil £0.50p a liter

you can quite easily make your own bio diesel, you need veggy oil and ethanol,simply put you mix the two and whats left separates and you syphon off the stuff at the top and away you go

there is also one other way to do it with older engines,you fit a fuel cat and a second tank,use the small tank for diesel and then switch to veggy oil once the engine is warm but you have to switch back to diesel before you stop.

theres a big move on over here to start producing bio diesel and have it available at the pumps

i would not use straight veggy oil on a new diesel engine,they are just too complex to handle the thicker veggy oil,the problem lies with the viscocity

When MR Van Diesel dreamt up his famous engine,his intentions were to produce an engine that could run on Palm nut oil etc,it was intended to help the poorer countrys.

the original diesel engine was designed to run on veggy oil

[RickJ]

I'm hoping to get a Kia Sorrento for a tow car. I've got my eye on a 5-year old one at under £10k, they have a 2.5 diesel, and at just over 2000kg are the ideal weight without being a monster. Average fuel consumption is around 35 mpg which is not at all bad.

I know there is a market for filtered used veg. oil for diesel, I'd never thought of buying it new. But at 50p/lt it's not that daft an idea!

I'm actually not convinced about the large-scale viability of bio-diesel as an alternative "green" fuel. The carbon-cycle principle is fine, but the problem is the amount that would need to be produced and the amount of land available. They're already tearing down tropical rain forest to plant oil palms which kind-of defeats the objective. And if poorer countries find they can make more money turning good arable land over to fuel production while the people already on subsistence starve ...

It creates more questions than answers to my mind.

I also don't think that burning used veg. oil actually reduces total carbon emissions. If it wasn't burnt it would end up back in the ground, taking its carbon with it. If you burn it, you leave the equivalent amount of mineral oil in the ground instead. Total oil burnt v. oil in the ground is the same.

Sorry - getting a bit OT

Back on-topic - yes, I know about the Mac Owners association over here. In fact I got in touch with a member a couple of weeks ago (Morris, who edits the newsletter) who has his moored over here, and went out for a sail with him. That finally convinced me it was the boat I wanted to get. I shall be joining-up soon.

Cheers

[bastonjock]

thats why i only use rapeseed rick,i dont like what the Malaysian government is doing to the aboriginals on Sarrawak

[kmclemore]

Eric, they made an ever smaller version of that boat, though most would doubt that was even possible! These boats are relatives of the West Wight Potter's (and indeed they look very much alike).

[Frank C]

Ah-soooo! Very opportune timing for that view of the "Potter" hull-design.

See discussion elsewhere regarding the theoretical hull speed of semi-displacing hulls,
such as pictured just above!

[eric3a]

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[Ron]

Concerning the 196 engine hours, I bought a 1996 26x and it had 400 hours more or less. The engine, a honda, worked fine when I bought the boat 2 years ago. So, 196 hours seems low.