MacGregorSailors.com

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Panels mounted and in one of a number of possible position scenarios.



Slot between main panels can be covered for rain/sun protection or open to view sail and windex.



Main panels can hinge out under outer panels to open cockpit up. This still allows the output from the 2 outer panes to go to the house bank batteries or the trolling motor batteries.

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Main panel hinged down on one side or the other or both. The two sides can be in any position independently of the other side. In this case if I maybe want wind or sun protection I can hinge one panel down. You can still see under it but I wouldn't do this if I was anywhere near other boats and had to be aware of their position. Once you get south in Florida on the west coast you might only see one or two other boats all day long.



All the panels down but out a ways to get to the cleats on the coamings if needed.



Rotated further down and in for trailering or boat setup or teardown.

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Also might trailer like this with the outer panels folded over the inner ones. This will also be used for docking when I need the side vision and don't want to have anything hanging out there to run into those pilings with.

All of the positions can be achieved in less than a minute as the supports and panel frames are all pinned. Pull a couple pins and rotate the panel where you want it.

More pictures and more info on how this hopefully all works here...

http://1fatgmc.com/boat/mac-1/mac-outsi ... age-1.html

.... and as time permits I'll add pages on how all of that was made and later on if it actually works and how it all worked out. Again an experiment on my part that I don't expect to see duplicated,

Sumner

============================
Our MacGregor 26-S

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

One of the things I was thinking about in that other thread on the auto pilot and related to the limit issue. With the trolling motor and a speed of maybe 2 knots (you still have up to three in your write up - that must be with a tail wind and current in the right direction), I think you may have issues of stalling the rudder and having the auto pilot do a lot of limiting - which either blows a fuse or isnt good for the auto pilot. Its a similar problem that people have trying to dock these boats going very slow without vectoring the outboard thrust.. At low speeds, you need a high anlge of attack on the foil to generate the needed lift to turn and then the foil becomes prone to stalling. Especially true for the high aspect foils we have.

So.. just a possible suggestion but if you plan to use the auto pilot for those long slow days and also if you use the trolling motor to set the anchor where you are going very slow, what do you think about having the trolling motor always connected to the tiller - ie, the trolling motor rotates with the tiller .. This might only be an issue if you plan to also have the auto pilot running (but I cant imaging using that setup any other way)..

walt wrote:One of the things I was thinking about in that other thread on the auto pilot and related to the limit issue. With the trolling motor and a speed of maybe 2 knots (you still have up to three in your write up - that must be with a tail wind and current in the right direction), I think you may have issues of stalling the rudder and having the auto pilot do a lot of limiting - which either blows a fuse or isnt good for the auto pilot. Its a similar problem that people have trying to dock these boats going very slow without vectoring the outboard thrust.. At low speeds, you need a high anlge of attack on the foil to generate the needed lift to turn and then the foil becomes prone to stalling. Especially true for the high aspect foils we have..

The 2-3 knots is just to keep the motor running at a very low amperage I'm sure it will go faster if needed. I'm just going to have to see what happens with some of this but think 2-3 should still give me steerage in the conditions when I'd be using the trolling motor of no wind or current. Again this is an experiment with a lot of unknowns but has been challenging and kept me busy at a time when I've needed to be kept busy.

walt wrote:...So.. just a possible suggestion but if you plan to use the auto pilot for those long slow days and also if you use the trolling motor to set the anchor where you are going very slow, what do you think about having the trolling motor always connected to the tiller - ie, the trolling motor rotates with the tiller .. This might only be an issue if you plan to also have the auto pilot running (but I cant imaging using that setup any other way)..

I'll give this some serious thought and see if there is some easy way to connect them. As you know I can do that ....



http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... de-29.html

.... quickly between the outboard's tiller and the rudder's tiller and it works really well for control. I'd have to see it I could do this behind the push-pit but it might be doable. I'm going to check that out today, thanks,

Sumner

============================
Our MacGregor 26-S

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

Probably easy to do.. (er.. you have built slightly more complicated things than this..)

On my 15 foot dingy (modified C15) which is probably close to 1/10 the weight you will end up with, I am getting right about 3 knots using about 25% more power than you plan to on those long runs (you said 10 amps @ 24v).

Very early on after I put the trolling motor on, I connected the linkage for two reasons.. One was so the rudder didnt meet the prop but it also very much improves control. Without the trolling motor vectoring.. the rudder ends up with some pretty wild swings. That linkage is always connected when I run the trolling motor. I also run 2.5 hp outboard which runs the boat at higher speeds. I dont have the rudder connected to the gas outboard - not really needed because of the higher speeds although I still manually vector the outboard when going slow (like docking).

Thanks for the picture and I think I'll do this. I like that. I didn't like that I couldn't turn the trolling motor much with its handle due to it hitting the ladder but that would solve that. I just went and looked and I think this is doable.



http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... de-12.html

I'll have to get rid of the outboard mount above as the tiller handle hits that but now that I've made the one for the side of the boat I think I can live with that. I just need to unbolt it so could go back to it.

You just made me some more work ,

Sumner

============================
Our MacGregor 26-S

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links