Do you mostly sail or motor your Powersailor?

[lucaspalm]

Hi everyone,

Just curious how people here usually use their MacGregor Powersailor.
Do you mostly sail, or do you end up motoring a lot of the time?

I like the idea of having both options, especially when the wind dies or you need to get back quickly. Would be interesting to hear how others use theirs in practice.

[dlandersson]

It's about 50-50. I like sailing. My kids like motoring to a beach or tubing with their friends - or just hanging out in the marina

Hi everyone,

Just curious how people here usually use their MacGregor Powersailor.
Do you mostly sail, or do you end up motoring a lot of the time?

I like the idea of having both options, especially when the wind dies or you need to get back quickly. Would be interesting to hear how others use theirs in practice.

[Deeseas]

Motor

[leefrankpierce]

Sail.
Motor gets me in and out of marina.
No kids.

[Be Free]

Hi everyone,

Just curious how people here usually use their MacGregor Powersailor.
Do you mostly sail, or do you end up motoring a lot of the time?

I like the idea of having both options, especially when the wind dies or you need to get back quickly. Would be interesting to hear how others use theirs in practice.

As close to 100% sail as I can achieve. I see the outboard very much as an "auxiliary engine" and count the minutes until I can turn it off.

I (mostly) see the big engine on the back as a piece of safety equipment. It gets me in and out of the boat ramp safer and easier than I could do under sail and it allows me to navigate safely in (or away) from bad weather better than I could do under sail. It's there if I need it but so are my life jackets. I have no issue using either of them as needed but neither one is high on my "fun" list.

If I were not retired I might use it differently but I to seldom have the "need to get back quickly" and I usually don't care if the wind dies. That's just an excuse to take a nap until it picks back up.

On the rare occasions when I care what time (or day) I arrive at my destination I may motorsail until the wind picks up enough to get me back on track. I think I have about 8 years and maybe 200 hours on my engine. If I was going fast enough to make a wake 10% of that time I'd be surprised. I'd have to go check my logs but I probably have close to 2000 miles on the boat over the same time period.

When I had a schedule and wanted to go fast I had a power boat. I bought a sail boat because I like to sail (see my signature).

[Russ]

All depends on conditions.

If I can sail, I'll sail.

If the wind is too weak or strong, I'll motor.

That's what is great about the X/M is you have both options.

[dlandersson]

If I were not retired I might use it differently but I to seldom have the "need to get back quickly" and I usually don't care if the wind dies. That's just an excuse to take a nap until it picks back up.

[NiceAft]

For me, it depends on where I am.

When we do seventeen days crisscrossing the Chesapeake, we motor between Marinas. Some of those distances are forty miles. Motoring is essential. As we all know, this ability is a wonderful asset of owning a Mac.

When we are in Lake George for two weeks, it’s sailing.

Motoring off the Chesapeake, and up the channel to Baltimore. Behind me is the what remains of the Key Bridge after it collapsed.


Sailing on Lake George past Tongue Mountain, My watercolor of this photo is my avatar for this forum.

[Strange]

That IS the beauty of the X and M boats. Oh, and the 19. Having “both options”. And easily trailerable. But it isn’t about how WE use them. The ONLY thing that is important is how YOU will.

Having said that, I motor whenever I want, sail whenever I can, wherever I want to drag it to, and if I find a suitable location, just camp out for a few days.

I’ve even been known to leave the motor engaged at lowest RPM to create wind when there was none just so I could “sail”.

[dlandersson]

How about a really long extension cord and a big fan (on sale at Wal-Mart)?

I’ve even been known to leave the motor engaged at lowest RPM to create wind when there was none just so I could “sail”.

[NiceAft]

Strange wrote: ↑

I’ve even been known to leave the motor engaged at lowest RPM to create wind when there was none just so I could “sail”.

Actually, there’s nothing new about this

A forum moderator (no name mentioned, and it was not me) has confessed to doing that during races. He would have the sails up, while the outboard idled at 1000 rpm. Never got caught.

[Be Free]

My X in it's normal (overweight) trim will do 2.3 knots at idle (850 RPM) and 2.9 at 1000 RPM on flat water. You'd think that adding that to the knot or so it would be making beating into a 2 or 3 knot breeze might get the judge's attention.

[OverEasy]

Mainly motor cruising to keep things simple for exploring the estuaries and rivers.
Yes there are lots of open water to sail here but getting into the estuaries with a mast and rigging is just gonna get snagged.

It’s all about a mater of choice for what you want to do and where you want to do it.

Your boat your choices.

[NiceAft]

You'd think that adding that to the knot or so it would be making beating into a 2 or 3 knot breeze might get the judge's attention.

Maybe maybe not I just posted what he claimed. Seems feasible. Mac’s are so slow, that they they wouldn’t win the race, they would just not loose the race as poorly. Who would notice that the motor was down, not up They’d probably just think, “look at that poor fool in a Mac; he’d probably go a knot or two faster if the motor was up.”

[Strange]

How about a really long extension cord and a big fan (on sale at Wal-Mart)?

I’ve even been known to leave the motor engaged at lowest RPM to create wind when there was none just so I could “sail”.

Hey, they’ve proven that would work, too!