MacGregorSailors.com

I would get the book The Great Circle Route by Skipper Bob. Tells you the best directions. the best stops, what routes to take for different size boats, what areas have bugs, and how to avoid them, and many helpfull other hints to make your trip enjoyable. He has a e-mail address of [email protected]. and a web site of Http://SkipperBob.home.att.net
Pat

While I have not done this entire route (but hope to someday), I did come down the Missouri, to the Mississippi to New Orleans, then the ICW to Apalacha (sp), across the Gulf to Ft. Myers, St. Lucie to Stewart-then out to the Bahamas. The MAC was a great boat for this trip, some of the bigger boats I ran across had trouble finding good safe night anchorages, which was not a problem for me. Lots of little towns along the way with small docks you would never see from the road and $1.00 a pound catfish, cold beer and friendly locals was the rule rather than the exception. There were a fair number of campgrounds with ramps and docks that were excellent for overnight stays once the ramps closed at dusk. MM

Yo:

I, too, would love to do the great loop. It won't be this year for sure - who knows what next year will bring?

Haven't thought this out but, might it be possible for different folks to join up with each other in the loop at different starting points and be together for parts of the loop?

Sounds like an amazing trip. I'll have to put that on my list when I get closer to retirement.. oh about 15-20 years from now.

Happy Sailing!

The Great Loop trip sounds like fun, especially being joined occasionallly but other Mac owners. But I'm also thinking of doing the Great Northwest Inland Passage to Alaska. That is absolutely gorgeous country, if challenging sailing. Convincing the Admiral to leave the grandchildren and go along on either might take great persuasion. Then again, she's mentioned it would be great to sail the Maine coast. Ah, so much water, so little time!

My wife and I have taken 2 extended trips in our Mac. The first involved trailering it 16000 miles around the US in 2003-4, and cruising it about 2000 nautical miles. We spent over 4 months aboard, on various cruises ranging from 4 days to 2 months in length. This past summer we cruised the Inside Passage as far north as Glacier Bay, a trip which covered 2100 nautical miles in 75 days.

The Mac served very well on these trips. We prepared the boat well for extended cruising. Modifications included installing a 9 gallon water tank with deck fill, purchasing the full cockpit surround, making a full cockpit no see um screen and another for the fore hatch, installing a pair of reading lights for the V berth, a good stove/heater (Wallis - uses mineral spirits), installing a digital voltmeter (which proved very useful on the Alaska trip), drop down motor mount for a 3.5hp kicker that also powers our porta-bote dinghy, custom modified drawers and shelves for the galley and table/settee area, and a deck system over the steering linkages, which makes entry through the steering seat much easier and which provides a handy place to tie down a pair of 5 gallon fuel tanks (very necessary on the Alaska trip).

On the ICW in 2003 we stowed a pair of partially disassembled bikes in the stern king berth. Very nice for getting around towns. We used lots of plastic tubs to stow provisions. Some of the larger ones were stowed in the aft berth. Contents were inventoried, tubs numbered, and cords with numbered tabs enabled us to pull them out without having to crawl all the way back. Stowage on the Mac for long range cruising is a challenge, but it's amazing what you can come up with. Just remember that the extra weight comes at a speed and mileage price. Before crossing to the Bahamas we found ourselves sitting a couple of inches lower in the water than usual.

Good luck with your adventure from Mike and Sandy Cecka

Hi Mike & Cindy Cecka...I enjoyed reading your post. I'm curious about the trailer and towing for such a long distance, especially with all the added weight mentioned...did you modify the trailer, ie add an extra axle, etc. ? I ask this because we would like trailering the Mac also, sorta venturing to other ports, docks, etc. instead of sailing there. And may I ask if you had any trailer problems ?
Thanks..

Slamjammer -

are there better alternatives?

yes. but for how much more money in order to go 15 mph? A 43 foot would be nice but at what cost. There is only a few places where you need to step the mast on the LOOP. You will have the same problems with any 26 footer. Execpt you will have the plus points of a Mac.

IF you have not already looked at the America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association (AGLCA), here is the link -
http://www.greatloop.com/index.htm

Good luck. Keep us informed. I hope to be doing it in 3 years.

We have a friend who bought one. He owned a 26' Chrysler sailboat and ended up selling that and keeping the Nomad. He loves it. Jim would like one too because you can stand up and walk around all the time. Really a neat little boat. Trailerable...only problem...it costs you every inch of travel. That's why I like the Max 26X. You can always sail or motorsail when on open water. On the St Johns River in FL we use the jib to help.

For a trailerable and extended living? I'll bet that little Nomad would be real comfy. Roof top AC and a small honda generator. Full enclosure in the cockpit. Man...what more could you ask for. We spent a day on our friends and when we ran aground in the river on a gravel bank we just stepped out and shoved it off. Jim sat in a deck chair on the roof. Nice sturdy boat...pretty costly even for a used one though. I know Jim would swap in a minute if we could find one. I think he's tired of banging his head all the time.

Slamjammer - Nice boat, Did not look at it much because I wanted to do the Bahama - Carib and the Loop. There is some sailing in the loop, Great Lakes, West Fl coast. Just a few hundred in the 5000 + mile trip. I had thought about just leaving the mast down, however, I was planing a 8 month trip. Thats 273 days for 5000 miles = just 18 miles a day. If the price of gas keeps going up I will probably just do the Bahama/Carib and sail when I can. Need to work out some details like - 150 mile open water passage usually against the wind, frequent strong winds that last a long time in the Carib, learn to speack spanish. The rest is the same.

LOUIS B HOLUB wrote:Hi Mike & Cindy Cecka...I enjoyed reading your post. I'm curious about the trailer and towing for such a long distance, especially with all the added weight mentioned...did you modify the trailer, ie add an extra axle, etc. ? I ask this because we would like trailering the Mac also, sorta venturing to other ports, docks, etc. instead of sailing there. And may I ask if you had any trailer problems ?
Thanks..

Hi Louis,

Glad you enjoyed the post. We did a major mod of the trailer. We had our dealer add a second axle (no brakes on it). He does this by breaking the original axle free and reattaching it in a new position, then adding the second axle, which is a MacGregor factory axle. We also had the factory drum brakes replaced by stainless steel disk brakes, which are easier to rinse off after being in salt water. We had two problems while trailering. The first was my fault. I drove the boat over Teton Pass into Jackson Hole. The pass is about 10,000 feet and on the east side runs for about 8 miles at 9% grade. By the time we got to the bottom we had blown grease out of one hub, and the wheels with the brakes were scorching hot, from the surge brakes being engaged all the way down the grade. I had the wheel bearings replaced and regreased (luckily the bearings didn't burn out and I still carry the old ones for spare). What I didn't realize at the time was that I had damaged the brakes as well, and we completed the trip with nonfunctional brakes. Fortunately our heavy duty diesel pickup handled things just fine.

Our second problem could have been disastrous except for that second axle. While traversing the freeway in Miami I glanced out my rear view mirror and saw smoke billowing out of the trailer wheelwell. One of the trailer tires had failed and had shredded. Thanks to the tandem axle we still had a good tire under the boat on that side, so we drove calmly off the freeway and got a new tire. I shudder to think what a shredded tire would have behaved like, at freeway speeds, with just one axle.

Other than those two incidents, the trailering went fine. One note: with a tandem axle you trade excellent roading stability for a little bit of tight space maneuverability. You can't push the trailer in quite as tight a radius after adding the tandem.

Good luck, and happy sailing (and trailering)

Mike Cecka