I bought this Macgregor 26x last October. A lot of stuff was taken out of it by the owner for his used powerboat he just bought (the Admiral was getting too tired to sail), but the motor ran (Tohatsu 50D), the thing appears to float, the sails looked ok, etc. I've been very busy building a house so I put off getting the Mac in the water until now.
Ok, I'm a newbie who took some sailing classes in January, so cut me a little slack as I describe my adventure:
My girlfriend Pamela and I spent a couple of hours cleaning up the boat, and then we went to the Lake Park office to confirm where our dock space was and got the registration sticker.
Then we took the boat down to the launching ramps that were a little farther from the Marina than the main launching ramp, but there were two of them which I thought would be good in case we had troubles, and folks wouldn’t have to wait while the rookie did his thing. That turned out to be the wisest decision of the day.
Before we launched we pulled over to one side and raised the mast which took a while since it was my first time. I dropped the mast on my foot trying to raise it manually. Ow!
I ended up using the mast raising ‘system’ (pulleys/pole) after Pam helped me figure out how to attach it. Piece of cake after that!
The boat floated off the trailer very easily. Pam held the boat to the launching area with a line while I drove the truck/trailer out of the way.
I got on the boat, started the engine (so far so good), and then.. the steering was locked up! I knew the steering had worked before but I hadn’t checked it recently. D’oh!!
I had brought a tool bag with me, so I detached the steering mechanism from the rudders and had to steer with my feet. The motor was locked in a slight angle causing the boat to want to go left, and the rudders were getting jammed in the detached mechanism now and then. It was a big challenge just getting the boat around a small isthmus, and into the marina. I went very slowly. It was almost impossible to steer, and I had no idea how I was going to get the boat into the slip right next to a boat that looked a lot more expensive than mine! Somehow I did it though with very little bumping of the dock and/or other boats. Whew!
The next day I went down to see what was up. The boat was still floating (!) and I was able to get the steering working with some lubrication and tapping with a hammer to get things started. Works very smoothly now. I was a little worried I’d have to replace a cable or a gearbox or something. I read somewhere that 90% of the issues with these things are caused by disuse.
Next weekend I’ll attach the boom, and rig the sails!
More cleaning, too.
Robert
, as you will find out. 
