MacGregorSailors.com

I finally got my boat mast and sail replaced after it got damaged by my stupidity and a hurricane.

Anyway, my X now has an M rig and I took it out for a little sail yesterday. Now I have not sailed in a while as my boat has been broke since last September. BUT - it really seemed to scream with the new rig.

Now it is not a straight-up comparisom, because I also have a quality aftermarket full battened main and a new jib.

Here are my seat of the pants observations:

1. It is faster on all points of sail. I did not have a GPS with me but it just screamed along, well it "seemed" fast. Granted 10% more sail area on the main, you would expect more power.

2. I could hold a course closer to the wind. I would guess at least 5 degrees closer, maybe a bit more. Again, this is my guesstimate using my eyeball and a windex.

3. It seemed to lean less. I was out in winds up to about 20 mph, yet I did not ever heal more than 15 degrees.

4. The rotating mast makes a difference. It got stuck at the wrong angle, I manually rotated it to the correct angle and the boat shot off at a knot or so faster.

After one day of sailing I'm pretty darn glad I did it. It kicks butt.

I think that at some point it would be interesting to race a normal M and X boat to see if it is all in my head or what? I have a GPS chartplotter, I just need to get it installed. Then I can get some figures. Until then I am convinced that it is a big improvement.

I have pictures on the Mod Page.

Pretty awesome mod! I suppose one of those red or green halyards is for the main, but what's the other one for?

Green is for the main, red is for the headsail. Right now my jib is roller furled so I tie the red one to the fore as a backup fore stay.

The guys at Gateway put a rope that I have connected for a loose backstay. I can tighten it when running downwind. Probably overkill.

My last sail did not have slugs. This one does. It has sail slugs, a slug stop, and lines aft. Honestly I have to wonder why I did not do lines aft etc before. It works great and makes sailing easier by far. This boat is going to get a lot more use now.

I also put a Sport Pilot Plus on the boat. The autopilot did not work well under power. But under sail it is great. The boat is more steady under sail and hence the sportpilot has less work to do and is better at handling things.

Just expermenting with putting a image on here




The above picture is my modified boat moored at Anclote Key Florida yesterday.

May we ask what the conversion cost?

Well, I replaced lines, put in lines aft, and a bunch of stuff. It added up to $2600. But I think only about $1500 was materials and labor for the conversion.

Now I also spent a $1000 on a new sail. I had to buy one anyway as the old one was beat.

Pretty cool! I would have thought it would be overpowered but maybe not. I finally got my mast to rotate reliably; a spray can of moly lube seems to do wonders.

TampaMac

Do you have a weighted keel? or the stock keel? Have you noticed the weather helm in higher winds?

Cool modification.

Thanks.

It leads me even more to think that our stock X's heel excessively because of our baggy, poorly shaped stock sails rather than lack of ballast. An M doesn't carry any more ballast than an X and the flatter X hull actually has more shape stability than a M hull. The X should be able to carry the taller M mast with it's larger sail area at least as good as an M if not better as your new hybrid shows.

It seems the real culprit in the lackluster performance of both the X and the M are the cheap factory sails. I've always thought every mac main I've seen, new or old, X or M, has far too full a shape. Too much of the effort goes into heeling the boat instead of moving the boat. Add a well cut full batten main to even the short X stick and it's like having a whole new boat.

TampaMac,

What is the cockpit sole to boom clearance with the mainsail up? I'm wondering what the difference is over the X rig.

Thanks,
Greg

TampaMac,
Do you have any pictures of the spots where you put the new chainplates at? Or did you use the old spots that the X had? Thanks, Tony

Tony,

TampaMac posted a picture of the chainplates on the mods pages.