MacGregorSailors.com

Getting the main sail up -
1. Sail Caddy will help keep the main on the boom.
2. Have the line lead aft to the winch.

You should be able to do it then.

Anchor - I have a Super Max 12 (18 pounds) that I set at 4200 rpm's with the 50 hp and I have had to use the motor to pull it out.
An easy way to do this is to run a loop from the bow to the stern. Tie it off at the stern and bow. Release the orginal bow cleat. The boat should turn around. Take care in much wind. Then motor up to the anchor leaving the rode in the cockpit. Sort the mess out latter. If you are anchored in close quarters, becareful of drift.

I have done it single handed many times and some times I have to be real quick.

Have fun and plan well.

Thanks Guys...lots of good, practical advise. I have completed a boating safety class as I consider this most imortant. I am now trying to get my sailor friend out with me so I can learn more. I think my big mistake my first time out was not having another adult on board to help, and second the wind was probably a bit too high for someone inexperienced as I.

Anyway, hope to be out again this Thursday or Friday probably along the lower James river. Hope to have the "Admiral" with me this time.

JJ,

Congratulations with the start to this years sailing season. I'm still weeks away from launching.


Ray

I have the same interest in raising the main singlehanded.

I have just tried the heave to and it was a great experience.

It is my understanding that boats without spreaders that sweep back use heave to to raise the mainsail from what I have read. if the mainsail is loose and flapping after releasing the mainsheet to lower can the same process be used to raise it? I am just guesing but it seems if the sail gets passed the spreaders ok it will work on a Mac 26. Just looking for thoughts on this way of raising because heave to sure gave me a relaxed feeling and also seems like if halyards or anything else doesn't work as it is supposed to you have a setting to correct the problem.

Gary

The X I just bought has a homemade lazy jack system and I just figured it out while sailing today. Boy that helped with raising and lowering the main. I can leave the motor running just enough to make steerage and keep her pointed in the wind while I run up the mainsail. Maybe I have one of those zero feeback steering cables, I dunno. I should probably ask the PO.

I haven't tried to anchor yet - well except for beaching her at the local bar after the day's sailing and dragging the anchor up on shore.

Lease wrote:My first reaction to this type of question is always, please, please take a basic sailing course. It will add so much more fun to your sailing when you know more and are more confident.

THIS IS OUR BASIC SAILING COURSE
we are cheapskates we can get your knowledge for free

I, like Catigale need to understand things . I can't figure out why the floatie thingo would submerge and lift the anchor. As Pauline Hanson would say "please explain" Sorry this would probably only make sense to Aussies although I am sure some of Pauline's exploits were made public in other parts of the world.

Cheers Nick

The ball float doesn't get drawn underwater. By running ahead the ball float drags behind, at the surface. The anchor line runs through the ring and down to the anchor. As the boat powers ahead, the ball drags farther and farther behind, and the anchor rises steadily up, toward the ball float. Once you figure it's nearly all the way up, you cut power and pull the anchor rode in. At depths our boats typically anchor in, a system like that doesn't make much sense. It's generally used when anchoring with a heavy anchor in deep water. I went halibut fishing on a charter boat out of Sitka Alaska. We were fishing in 200 feet of water, with a heavy anchor out. It would have been a huge amount of work to pull up by hand, but the ball float system made the job pretty easy.

As chinook said but I bought one just in case I needed it and to use as a marker or bouy but still havent used it yet, could also be used as a float for the sea anchor.
Saw one used on a bigger boat in deep water and they work a treat.

I agree with the others that:
fundamental instruction makes everything come together, makes everything make sense, and builds confidence from a practical standpoint.

Only thing I can add is:
if it is windy don't try to get the mainsail all the way up, just get it to a reef point and sail from there. Good practice, the boat has less heel, you have more control and a safer day.

If your mainsail has a bolt rope invest in a Spinlock mainsail pre-feeder. I bought one a few weeks ago and it makes a huge difference, only takes a few seconds to get the sail up and less opportunity to fall off the cabin roof into the wet stuff.

I have my lines running aft to the cockpit. Every time I point into the wind and try to raise the main (with sail slugs) it gets caught on the original halyard cleat on the mast. I have been thinking about removing it since I have rope clutches aft. thoughts?

live2shift wrote:I have my lines running aft to the cockpit. Every time I point into the wind and try to raise the main (with sail slugs) it gets caught on the original halyard cleat on the mast. I have been thinking about removing it since I have rope clutches aft. thoughts?

What gets caught, the sail, the haulyard? If its the haulyard, it may be because your line is too loose and flops around. It sholdn't be the main itself.

live2shift wrote:I have my lines running aft to the cockpit. Every time I point into the wind and try to raise the main (with sail slugs) it gets caught on the original halyard cleat on the mast. I have been thinking about removing it since I have rope clutches aft. thoughts?

Mine are removed...by the PO. Don't see why you would still need them. The only thing the halyard occassionally gets caught on is the bolt holding the forestay hound. Need to cover the end of that bolt or shorten it a little.

Jim

I guess I am still asleep here, but when pulling up the main: (my lines are run aft)
the halyard should not catch on anything if you clear it before putting any strain on the sail. You should be headed into the wind (as already pointed out), the downhaul should be free, the vang loose, and the traveler should be relatively loose, but the topping lift should still be attached.
Single handed (or sailing with wife or similarily encounmbered), I would have the sail slugs already fitted into the boltrope track and a stopper of some sort attached, (done at the dock where out haul is also tensioned) so there would be a few feet of sail already started up and the halyard would be clear with some tension on it, when I turned into the wind, I would start to pull on the halyard and watch to see that it was still clear then pull away until the sail was up, a steady pull should not let the halyard slap around and catch on anything, then tighten the down haul, snug the vang, adjust the traveler and remove the topping lift (not everyone removes the topping lift, just my preference) turn onto a heading set the sails and kill the OB. I do not have a lock on my wheel, I use a bungee cord wrapped around the pedistale(sp??) to kind of hold it on track. But that is what I would do...

What the boat will do while I am doing this of course is why it is so much fun to sail. And why my wife has so much to point out to me.

As for that bolt that holds the upper shrouds, on the M it is too long, you can cut off the excess or add a cap nut but the halyard still wants to tuck behind the stopper nut. IMO keeping tension on the hayard is the best way to prevent that.