Back from holidays!!!

[Miquel]

Back from our holidays in the Mediterranean Sea (Spain, Costa Brava). Wish we were still there, but all good things come to an end. Here it is a summary of what it was.

We have trailored our Culzean for about 900 miles (from Belgium to Spain and back). We use a Volkswagen Sharan 1.9 turbo diesel (130 Hp). No problems at all: it took 17 hours every trip, and we used our Mac as accommodation to sleep during the night in the trip. Maximum speed to feel save was for my wife and me about 65 mph (motorway).

We are 6: 4 children (2 girls of 13, 2 boys of 9), my wife and myself. The girls sleep in the rear bed, the boys in the forward one, and we sleep in the dinette. During the 15 nights we have spent on board, there has been no problem. Adaptation to the life on board was quickly done, and no one felt as being too crowded.

Our vacation was planned to spend 1-week cruising la Costa Brava from almost Barcelona to France, sleeping always in harbors and the other week staying in a Marina and doing little trips around to swim and have fun. We followed this plan. At the end, the conclusion for everyone was that for cruising, we would have to dedicate more time. It is hard to arrive to a place at 3.00 PM to leave the next morning: it doesnt give much time for exploring. I will try to remember this when planning next holidays (which by the way, we have decided it will be Corsica for next year, and we will try to take a complete month).

We have done about 300 Nautical miles. From them, about half have been by sail, and the other half motored. We had only one night passage, which was uneventful (wind died completely, so we had to motor). The idea was to sail as much as possible, and let it be done by the children (which had just followed training in sailing with Optimist & 420). My wife & I were only to be giving instructions when needed. It began so, but we did navigate more than expected (because children wanted to do other things also).

Wind has been quite easy: in average, we have had 2-3 Beaufort (so 5 to 10 knots), with only reaching force 5 (20 knots) in one occasion. It was the first time I had installed the genoa, and that was I think a good decision in view of the poor winds we have found. The day we had force 5, we decided to sail with the genoa alone, better than reefing main + genoa. Wind was coming from 90 100, so no major issue, and we did nice 6 knots.

I however found the genoa in the Mac 26X to be a little bit disappointing when reaching. It will for sure be a lot in my side to trim, but compared to using the jib, we didnt win that much in speed (at least, this was my impression), and the tacking angle went from the 90 we have with the jib to about 110 115 with the genoa. The spi showed to be a very valuable asset to have on board, when the wind was not following Murphys law (so coming from where you want to go, and not from where it was forecasted).

We had to act as a Mayday relay for a motorboat that had felt without motor at 8 Nautical miles from the coast. I was cruising at about 3 4 miles and the rescue service could not receive their mayday for a tow. We were in standby for about 2 hours, but it is always good to be able to help somebody in the sea, and it was a very good lesson for the children.

When sailing at about 2 knots, children found it very amusing to be pulled by the boat while holding a rope (one of us was also in the water). If speed was over 2 knots, we were pulling them in the dinghy.

I bought a new dinghy (Bombard AX2 with a Tohatsu 2,5 Hp) My first problem was to find a support that went well in the rear part of Culzean, as the balcony (sorry, I dont know the correct name) is not a normal one. I have found a system now. What it is not still resolved is the boat, especially when sailing. I used the side, as I saw in this board, but when heeling, it doesnt work well. Pulling it takes out quite a lot of speed, which is annoying in long passages. Does anyone have a suggestion? (The AX2 is 240 cm about 8 feet- long).

During those 15 days we have crossed 5 Mac26, all of them X. 2 where from Spain, 1 from Germany and 2 from France.

In summary, a fantastic holidays. I am now waiting for Friday, to return our Culzean to the sea in The Netherlands, where she is normally moored, and spend the weekend. And of course, I will begin to plan our next summer holidays in Corsica.

[Kevin]

Fantastic adventure!

I've never been to Spain and lately this is bothering me.

Reading about your trip makes me want to go even more.

[Mark Prouty]

Interesting trip. Thanks for your input on sailing preformance.

[Roy B. Highland]

Miquel, Thank you so much for your trip report. It gives us Mac sailers
things to dream about. Maybe plan ahead too.
I hope you took lots of pictures and that you plan to share them with us.
Good on you and your family.

Roy "Salty Dog" Highland

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

I second your comments on not enough time at each stop. On our recent 23 day 500 NMile trip we also found that we had planned too much ground to cover and had too much of a schedule to follow to enjoy many stops. We did have 4 stops where we spent 2 or 3 nights in the same place (two of them in facilities ashore), but we passed by a lot of other really nice places as we stuck to our trip plan.

I'm becoming more convinced that the right type of float plan should be a every other day is a travel day plan with even longer stops thrown in. This lets you sail more and not worry so much about the wind; stop early at an attractive place and then move on the next day without getting behind the schedule; Throw in an extra night at a real nice place and then be able to still stay on the schedule.

I'm also thinking more about going for a destination unknown, sailing only allowed trip soon as well. We'll just launch the boat in a nice area and go as the wind dictates. If it's strong we'll sail far, if it's weak we'll stay close. We'll look at the wind direction and strength each day and go the way that is easiest picking the place to stop based on where the boat ends up. If the wind doesn't blow we won't go anywhere. No marina reservations allowed.

As far as the dinghy, what type of floor does the AX2 have? Our new dinghy is a 9'9" air floor model and we find it fits well on the bow in front of the mast. I delflate the keel tube so it sits flat. You can sail easily with the rest of the boat inlfated and it doesn't obstruct the view ahead to bad. For even longer storage we delate it on the bow and roll it up and store it crosswise just behind the front hatch. It is completely out of the way there and actually adds a nice bow seat. You can see it there in the pictures from our trip.

We have a larger 6hp motor and towing it with the motor on resulted in a lot of drag. Just removing the motor to the bracket I put on the transom made quite a diference. We were losing over 2 knots speed with the motor on, with the motor off we only lost about 1 knot of speed towing the dinghy. Adjusting the length of the tow line also helps when towing under power. You want to get the dinghy to where it is riding the front side of one of the wake waves with its bow down a bit so it is always surfing down the front of the wave. This reduces the amount towing the dinghy slows the boat as well. Still, the best choice is to get it out of the water. Having an electric air pump has made us more willing to pull the boat and deflate it as it's not much work to re-inflate it later.

[Idle Time]

Miguel, thanks for sharing . Would love to see some pictures. Jim and I talk about Duanne and his family as if we know them since we've been following their adventures. It would be much more fun to put faces to the names. 6..and no one felt cramped. What a wonderful family you must have.

[Janusch]

Miguel that was awesome. I'm glad you had a great time. The longest trip I've taken is a weekender (3 1/2 days about 90 NM) and the most common phrase out of my wife mouth was I need to get more orginazed. It seemed we were tripping over each other and the stuff we brought, and we only have two children (3 & 6 yrs). How did you do it. You need to write a book and title it Crusing big on the small

God's Speed
Dave

[Miquel]

Thanks a lot for all your comments. This has been the longest experience of all 6 together in our Culzean. The result was so positive that we all want to give a try to one month next year (with the permission of the 2 young ladies of the family, that will be then 14).

Being the future destination an island (Corsica), I am tented to have the same approach that Duane is proposing for himself: no marina reservations at all (even if in the Mediterranean they only accept reservations in advance for at least one week; this is way we splited it in 1 week travel & 1 week in the same place), and going where the wind is more favourable. I felt a little bit frustrated because of having to motor so much, because of constraints inthe agenda. Also, I want to be able to take the time to really visit the places we like.

I would love to post some pictures (I agree with you, Idle Time; seing pictures gives you the impression of knowing better the persons you are reffering to), as well as some pictures of modifications I have done to our Culzean. The crude reality is that I don't know how to post pictures: the times I have tried it, the pictures were too big. Can somebody please help me?

For what the trip reffers to, we had a problem with the digital camera of the children (I still have to buy one for myself). It stopped working after some days on board, even if it was just 3 weeks old. Perhaps the saulty ambience? We have got some photos as souvenir, though.

Fair winds,

Miquel
Culzean.