MacGregorSailors.com

I use to hike out from time to time on North/South & South/North Caribbean long single tack crossings by using an extra Halyard, Jumar and my climbing harness; especially when I got bored after a couple of days, eventually I realized it was just to hard to reach the drink cooler so I stopped do it.

MM

Hi,
Depending on your area, wind strength, you can make gains to the std boat by adding sail area. The best way is a large roach main. We have made many Your sailmaker can advise, perhaps buying one of the discards from us, just kidding. If you find that your boat could use more power this is way to go. MacGregor is testing now the larger roach main with an idea of eliminating the genoa and genoa winches. The jib will be a selftacking jib. It is not ready yet and may never be, but it has caused some testing and buying of larger roach mains, I like the extra area aloft and with ther rotating mast and no backstay, the roach can be huge if you want. I have tried a square top really big sail but we are in Marina del Rey and light winds most of time. Keep my location and lack of breezy experience in mind if you listen to me, there are others who rightly say I don't know a thing about sailing in wind! Really, don't add sail area unless your location is a light wind area! If wind or breeze is the norm, call Dan Arena of San Francisco or Paul Sharp of England
Mike Inmon

Brian,

GTYC certainly seems to be the most active trailerable/non off the beach club around. Would be interested but is a bit of a trip from here in Willi. After a couple of seasons on the trailer I've lashed out and have Mintaka in the water so would mean a 50nm round trip or hauling out to go down. At the moment I wander down to RYCV in a couple of minutes + jump on a mate's boat for my fortnightly dose of fun around the cans.
Interested in the comments re main - sound sensible. Generally the problem is depowering the boat particularly in our summer conditions so wouldn't be looking for more rag up top.
Happy to discuss further - I'll email you contact. There are 2 of us here so you needn't feel lonely!

Cheers,

AJ

mikelinmon

Thanks for the input. I like the idea of a high roached main, however where I sail we do get quite strong winds at times and the increased sail area could prove to be a hassle instead of a boon. Would look good though!. Would love to see some picky's.
Would like more information on how you are thinking about creating a self tacking headsail. I intend to make one based on the skiffs I've raced, but I'm thinking that there could be a better way an more suited to the Mac.


OZ Sailers,
I've been working on trying to make up a set of class racing rules for the Mac. It's more a discussion paper and start point and will need input to make it happen. Now I just have to think of a way to get it out for the discusssion to take place. Basically I looked at how a bunch of other crusing / racing classes have created their rules and made something up from there.

Any ideas on distribution?

Raced again last Sunday, and used the new spinnaker. It was very light airs and having the water ballast full, I got absolutely flogged . Was miles behind the nearest boat. I did make up some distance with the kite up, but not enough to matter. I'm sure I'll get better eventually.

mikelinmon wrote:I have tried a square top really big sail but we are in Marina del Rey and light winds most of time.

Mike,

Wouldn't the square top do better in light winds? More sail area up high where there's more wind. I've been considering getting a flat top for my next sail, but need to research the advantages/disadvantages a bit more.

Any thoughts about a gaff-rigged mainsail?

dennisneal wrote:Any thoughts about a gaff-rigged mainsail?

not to sure how using the jib would affect the sail's shape. You would have good down wind performance due to increase top sail area but when headed into the wind the jib would create the major area of lift on the lower portion of the sail while the top might twist as it tried to follow the apparent wind.
And it would be one ugly looking cat boat

mikelinmon wrote:Hi,
Depending on your area, wind strength, you can make gains to the std boat by adding sail area. The best way is a large roach main.
Mike Inmon

Hi Mike

I've always felt that my M was undernourished for air. I would rather take my chances and just reef more often if need be. How did your flat head stand up? The Melges has a springy support on top of the mast. Does yours sag a bit around 4-5 kts.? What weight dacron did you use? Did you use dacron? were extra battens adequate?

I was given a PHRF at our club on Chatfield of 238. That's with 100% jib and no spinnaker. On Granby they gave me a 252 if I remember right. Hopefully Richard will have his mast fixed tomorrow and I'll have another M to race against.

My boat has so much junk in it--generator, TV, etc.--that it's probably not that competive but I still enjoy chasing people around the bouys.

baldbaby2000 wrote:Hopefully Richard will have his mast fixed tomorrow and I'll have another M to race .

As it turned out, BB beat me soundly, even with all his junk. I was singlehanded, and had a lot of trouble gybeing as my jib sheet kept catching on my new mast gear; nevertheless, I was beaten. I now believe in those Pentex sails. We'll meet again next week when I may have crew, and try again.

Richard,

In a race at Granby, Dan beat me soundly so you are not alone...
I did take him on a Catalina 250 though on another day, barely....

Terry

Has anyone bought one of the Pentex sails from Kelly Hansen with the increased roach yet, and if so what is your opinion of it? I need to get a better mainsail, however before trying to import a sail 'Down Under' I keen to here some opinions from those that know?

Richard,

Hopefully you'll have my crew this Wednesday. They don't have much experience but have really caught on fast. Be careful, they're both engineers like me!

Terry,

I remember those races; they were fun.

brianhar,

I have the Kelly Hanson Pentex sails and they seem to be pretty good. I think it has a little bigger roach than the stock. The top 2 battens are full. It's a little more bulky so barely fits under our old sail cover but we flake it and it does fit OK with a couple bungees wrapped around the cover to ensure it doesn't pop out. One thing I didn't think about when I got it but I really like is the loose footed main. It's easier to adjust the outhaul and the main comes off the boom much easier if you need to remove it.

We ordered the cream but the ones that came in were charcoal and we took them anyway. I'm glad we did because I think they look pretty cool!

Daniel

Brianhar (and anybody else),

I have raced Nacra's, Hobies and lasers, and am currently considering a MAC as a waterbago. I have yet to find any threads that discuss how the MAC goes upwind. Can you compare it to anything dingy like on the water when pointing. ie a Laser Radial, Mirror etc? With a flat bottom, I would expect sialing to be relatively quick off the wind.

From a comfort point of view I have always found it best to know how to get perfomance out of a boat. For example, in heavy and gusty weather a poor setup will cause any boat to go further sideways than forward (up wind) and rock around madly. Looking at the hull shap of the MAC I would think that best performance would be gained by sailing flat, with lots of vang, cleat the main and play the traveller. A bit like a laser. Is this the case? Maybe even sail by keeping the jib powered?

Note that the laser shown earlier in the thread need to get the boat flatter and put a bit more vang on! Easier said than done.

The dart,
like yourself I have been racing cats and skiffs for many years (lots of trailables too!). To date I have not had much wind to race in and subsequently had pretty poor results to measure by so far. When running the Genoa and full main the pointing ability is only fractionally worse than other trailables. Although it also takes a long time to get used to steering with a wheel instead of a tiller, leading to lots of snake trails behind me. The couple of times that I have run the working jib (which still is a Genoa) It took me a while to learn how to accelerate out of a tack. If I tacked and came hard on the jib too fast the boat would stall and slide sideways, and would only get forward momentum again once the jib had been released a bit. Even when going well to windward it is very easy to choke the slot between the main and jib.
I haven't had a good chunk of wind on a downwind leg since I got my spinnaker, but it does show promise.
In regards to trying to keep the boat flat and utilize the flat bottom the same as a skiff upwind, to date I have found it too difficult. The boat heels very easily, stabilising in the 15 to 20 degree range, which will never suit the flat bottom for performance. Downwind should prove to be a completely different kettle of fish.
Talking to a number of local sailmakers in regards to trailable sail control and they all seem consistant in their opinion of the vang. Have it just on upwind an use the traveller and mainsheet to control the sail shape. Leaving the vang just on then makes it suitable for the downwind leg by eliminating boom lift and the resultant death wobbles. I have found that on trailables the vang is not as versatile as compared to a skiff, it lacks the angle of attack and the mechanical advantage to be effective.
This Sunday is looking good for winds in the range of 15 to 25knots, so I'm looking forward to a good kite ride if nothing else. Will need to replace the stock standard Main, Jib and Genoa with quality sails before making a true and accurate opinion of upwind performance.

I'll provide some feedback after Sunday's race.