MacGregorSailors.com

Or for those of us lucky enough to have genoa winches you could make a bridle and attach to them

I made the sacrifice and bought the Baystar hydraulic steering kit. HC4200a3 (? from memory). My last run under power with the rudders and board up made me feel like a drunk behind the wheel. I do believe I swerved from one side of the dock aisle to the other. Hydraulic steering sounded like just what I needed and since coming over the from a tiller steered 25 MAC, I was over the joyous feedback of a puff of air. (I'm not really over it)

I hope I won't have to engineer a steering link to the rudders. Perhaps I'll have to trade off for a conventional 2way ram?

p.s. I really went overboard and bought a Raymarine autopilot. I solo sail a lot and I have always considered an autopilot to be a real enjoyment enhancer. I would like to do a solo Lake Michigan circumnavigation before I get to old. I might just be equipping the boat to do it with.

gyroplanes wrote:I made the sacrifice and bought the Baystar hydraulic steering kit. HC4200a3 (? from memory). My last run under power with the rudders and board up made me feel like a drunk behind the wheel. I do believe I swerved from one side of the dock aisle to the other. Hydraulic steering sounded like just what I needed and since coming over the from a tiller steered 25 MAC, I was over the joyous feedback of a puff of air. (I'm not really over it)

I hope I won't have to engineer a steering link to the rudders. Perhaps I'll have to trade off for a conventional 2way ram?

p.s. I really went overboard and bought a Raymarine autopilot. I solo sail a lot and I have always considered an autopilot to be a real enjoyment enhancer. I would like to do a solo Lake Michigan circumnavigation before I get to old. I might just be equipping the boat to do it with.

I did the Baystar too & right now rudders not hooked up; but so far - not too shabby. Hang in there. try some CB down, if u haven't...

I did not word my post well.
I have not yet received the Baystar unit.
My boat has been hard to steer due to way too much play in the steering. I took out all I could last year and was going to replace the cable. Baystar sounded like the best way to go. It should be here today or tomorrow......... whoopie!

Another option for others may be to get a dual cable mechanical and run one cable to the motor an other to rudders . guys that do this on sailing cats report it works well.

90 hp is Perfect for 26 x and Suzuki is the best motor . dont buy e tec because they dont stand low speed for long time - they need high rpm or else the plugs need cleaning very fast and often and the motor stops to easy when you need it most . i have 75 e tec and the size and weigth are Nice but i need a motor that Works and dont stops at slow speed for long periods like when Fishing , mooring +++

I finally got to pick my boat up from the installing dealer. They mounted my controls where the old one was but were able to make it nearly horizontal (about 10% up on the fwd end) The routed the cables around the pedestal and around to the back, then in through a boot. When I see the boat again, I'll get some pictures. Those Suzuki controls are $495.. less the cable. Suzuki is very proud of their products.
The salesman told me I would be getting a brand new 2017 model. Naturally, at time of pickup and paper signing, you can't read everything. When I got home I saw on the install sheet they called it a 2016.
I called Suzuki today and got a very, very nice person (Debbie) who explained that they don't use model years. I gave her my serial number and she looked it up. It was made in June 2016. I guess that's fresh enough for me. I didn't want a motor that was sitting around for years.

If it cools of a bit we will install the hydraulic steering in my son's driveway tomorrow. I will try to remember to take some pictures for those that may follow.

Any tips on a pedestal cover? My original wouldn't fit due to the PO installing a larger wheel and the metal "U" tube mounted to the pedestal front. Sail care? has DIY kits, maybe they'll have on OB motor cover too as Suzuki didn't.

Thanks again for all the help you have given,
Tom

I am glad to say that I am joining the group of "madmen" who need a bit more power. I purchased my 26M over the winter and was not impressed with the power of the Honda BF50. Best I could do was 16 knots w/o ballast. I found a used 12 Suzuki DF90 that is sitting now in my garage waiting to get matted with RainDancer. Thank you all for sharing, especially Victor, and I will keep you all apprised of my progress.

Happy boating,
Nick

Looks like the larger motor family is gowing. Hard to explain how soild the ride is until experienced firsthand.

DF90 install years later we were on the water last weekend for s 38 mile two day sail.

We happly slowly sailed 19 mi to our destination knowing we could fly back the next day.

Return trip was basically a head wind so we endlessly tacked Mac genoa fashion for hours with no real progress. Needing to make the 3 hour drive home, we set the DF90 to 4500 rpm and cruised back at 16.5 mph with full balast to help smootly crash thru 2 foot waves. Fun solid ride!

Emptied the ballast and hit 29 mph with head winds. We always get lots of stares and finger pointing WOT.

Used very little fuel.

Still a super fun, safety improvement I would do again. Could not imagine going back to a smaller anemic motor.

FYI: We have a spare set of sparkplugs onboad due to a failure of one unit that crippled the motor on a trip. Also have a spare tuned ptop.

Victor

We spent a week wake boarding behind our X on a local lake this summer.
Love the 90. It was able to pull me (230 pounds) at 21 MPH no problem.

https://youtu.be/UbubkNzQlqo

darrenj wrote:We spent a week wake boarding behind our X on a local lake this summer.
Love the 90. It was able to pull me (230 pounds) at 21 MPH no problem.

https://youtu.be/UbubkNzQlqo

I couldn't help but notice the boarding ladder which comes nearly to the coaming. It's gotta have at least two more rungs than my standard 2-rung unit, which I almost can't get into the boat with (also 230 lb ). If you don't mind the brief sidetrack, what ladder is that? Or did you add rungs to the existing?

I'm I'd love to get a 90 for mine.

The boarding ladder was on the boat when we bought the boat used 5 years ago. The boat is a 1998 and was originally purchased from Blue Water Yachts. Maybe they installed it ...

Lol is that Sierra telling Lorna to shut up about the MacGregor? Too funny

Tomfoolery wrote:
I'm I'd love to get a 90 for mine.

Ah ha!

Thinking of giving me a run for my money eh Tom...

https://youtu.be/7Bn47Z6U9HE



G

LOL, don't listen to the audio PLEASE!