Thanks to all of you who replied. A couple of things have happened since my first post.
1. Diane was able to sleep better after a 3 or 4 nights in the berth. When we were in a marina with wi-fi she looked at the comments and went to the links. She is a problem solver and I believe we will remove the 2 layers of foam and the original mats in the V berth and use memory foam with possibly a froli system if there is still discomfort. There will also be a single pad across the seat and extender so we can sleep higher and away from the bow. Our feet will not get as cold during the 10 Celsius nights and the hips might be better as well as a more stable platform as we have to exit multi times for head visits during the nights.
2. We had been discussing selling the boat since when we purchased Jedaro in 2002 it was agreed on to keep it for 5 years. Siince then we have sailed and motored in the following areas of Ontario: Rideau and Trent Canal systems, 30 000 Islands in Georgian Bay (35 days and our best trip for scenery and interest), North Channel using Killarney as a base-beautiful scenery), Thousand Islands both the US and Canadian sides (5 times), Ottawa to Montreal, upper Ottawa River (beautiful), and kept the boat at our cottage on a small lake with many islands each summer for afternoon sails etc.
This trip, partly because of the weather we spent time moored at Kingston's Confederation Basin and did a couple of sailing expeditions and attended a writer's conference, walked around Kingston and Ganoque when we were moored there. We would moor at the islands for 2 or 3 days then come in for showere, charge batteries etc. She liked the more relaxed pace when we would moor at about 2 or 3 pm and have time for reading exploring etc before it got dark at 7 pm.
One night I showed her Duane Dunn's webpage with all his mods together, his improved mods and his log. She spent at least 1 1/2 hours looking at mod's showing some to me, one's that I had seen but thought were neat but.... She became keener on the trip and what we could do to Jedaro and the discussion began to change to maybe making upgrades and selling the boat next summer after our spring trip.
hit me like a ton of bricks. We went to Duane's log of his trip where he took his wife, three kids and his oldest son's friend on a trip plus their two dogs. We went back and looked at his mods and were amazed at how he was able to make Allegro manageable and relatively efficient for so many. We on the other hand were in a Mac26 with 2 other adults with both ladies having numerous 'hot flashes'-and no enclosure. The boat seemed small.
Why not have more MacGregor owners who have web pages post them on the discussion board and 'on the links' page so that sailors who have made mods for 5, 4,3 or 2 trippers can show how they customized their boat for their numbers and sailing style.
Looking at some of the links has made Diane keener on more mods and has renewed interest in the boat and trips. Maybe it might help others where one sailor is more interested in the experience of MacGregor sailing.
Mike Purdy
Less in Las Vegas