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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

ride in a mac 26X

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MattL
Admiral

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USA
990 Posts

Initially Posted - 06/09/2004 : 10:14:55

Hi all,
OK, first let me say the Cat 25 is far, far superior to the mac 26X.
This last month has been kind of rough, health wise, and I didn't want to go out for my first sail after the hospital visits by myself.
A good friend with the above mentioned boat offered to take me for a trial sail on his boat. We went yesterday afternoon in our small inland lake with winds above 10 less than 20. I know that is a wide range, but it was gusty. My friends had drained out a bit of water from the water ballast for some light wind sailing, so we were healing a bit more than usual. We left the dock with the 50 horse power jenny. His manual said to keep it 5mph or less when the keel and rudders are down so we couldn't pull a skier at the time. I asked if he had bow thrusters too because it sure felt like I was on a big ferry leaving port.
I went forward to un tie the jib. I was amazed at how narrow and pointy the for deck was, and the life lines seemed low to me. My problems left me a little unsteady on my feet anyway so I was kind of nervous doing this. The halyards went to the base of the mast for tieing off.
The wheel stearing was kind of cool. If the admrial had been there I'm sure she would have liked that. As a beginner at this I kept turning the wrong way, and I also had troubles turning it to far and the thin blade rudders -two of them- kind of acted like brakes. I had to relenquish control when I couldn't get the boat to turn away from the rapidly approaching docks.
Tacking was kind of difficult too with the super high freeboard acting as a sail keeping you from going thorough the eye of the wind.
The main sheet comes to a loop on the top of the stering collumn so there is no traveler adjustment. Ed, my friend, wasn't fond of this and would preffer to have an adjustable travler. I agree. Also there was quite a bit of pounding to this collumn during some heavy gusts and slacked main.
I have never been on a WB boat, it was initially very tender, but seemed to stable out at about 15 degrees heal. Something that really supprised me was that the boat would just sail it self on a beam reach. I tried to get it to do this going closer to the wind, I got it to self steer about 60 degrees of center. I think that was pretty cool.
Something I really didn't like was the jib sheet setup that came standard with the boat. It uses small winches on the cabin top with cam cleats about 1 inch away from them. the cleats were not raised up at all and the sheet kept popping out. I think new cleats with more agressive teeth could help or a thicke line than he had. Still it was very aquard (how do you spell that again?) to use and I think a quick tack would be difficult. Ed is thinking of rerouting the lines to a better position on the deck combing. I think it would be better too, but then there will be a lot of line direction changes that could also cause troubles when tacking.
Over all impressions; I was very gratefull to my friend for taking me out, and I think I'll have now problems for Thursday nights race. The interior is nice nad roomy, but overall sailing is not quite up to catalina standards. I think I'll keep my old cat 25.

Matt/Brigitte Loeffler
E.C. Rider 5411
Cat 25 86'
FK/SR _/)

Edited by - on

dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

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Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 06/09/2004 : 12:57:23

Just this past Sunday at my marina, a new Macgregor owner and novice boater, with wife and kids aboard, launched his boat off the trailer and proceeded to drive it to his summer slip. He had the ballast tanks empty, board up, and both rudders in the up postion. For about twenty minutes he struggled trying to maneuver his boat, but with the prop providing the only steerage and the wind blowing him all over, the boat manuevered like a beach ball on the water. He did more than a few donuts in some narrow channels with his family quickly scampering over the boat to fend off the other boats they were drifting into. About a half dozen of us ran up and down the docks to provide assistance, but it seemed like everytime we got close to him, he would either drive the other way or the wind would do it for him. After about twenty somewhat frantic minutes, he threw in the towel and made his way back to the ramp and the safety of his trailer.

Hopefully, he'll try it again sometime, but I don't know because he had that,..."I'm through with this sh*t!"...look on his face.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 06/10/2004 : 23:32:37

Matt: I'm glad you got to have some fun on a sailboat--that's what it's all about, even if it's a Mac. But I seriously question the strategy of leaving the water ballast tank partially empty... That will absolutely and for certain DESTABILIZE the boat. An empty tank might give more stiffness up to a point. If you've ever been in a partially swamped small boat, you know the effect--the water moves to the low side and INCREASES the heel. If he really wants that for very light wind performance, fine. But for general stability, if the sails are up, the ballast tank should be totally full.

Ya, keep your Cat!

Don: What can we say?? It really doesn't have to be like that! No ballast, no board, no rudders??? Yikes!

Edited by - Dave Bristle on 06/10/2004 23:39:11

MattL
Admiral

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USA
990 Posts

Response Posted - 06/11/2004 : 06:14:29

Dave, I agree with you on the ballast. and yes to use the 50 horses you need the keel and rudders up and sails down, that is for high speed. Makes sense to me. My friend did have similar troubles going into dock with out the above mentioned. He quickly realized that the motor didn't give direction unless it was moving and always uses it with board and rudders down to go into the dock. To re load the water his directions tell him to motor at 8 mph to fill the tanks so I guess this is with the appendages withdrawn.

Edited by - on

RichardG
Admiral

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USA
990 Posts

Response Posted - 06/11/2004 : 11:02:31

Weeeeeeeh!

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dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

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Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 06/11/2004 : 11:20:29

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Dave Bristle
 ...But I seriously question the strategy of leaving the water ballast tank partially empty...if the sails are up, the ballast tank should be totally full.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Just how BIG are these ballast tanks???

Ya know...if these guys had led their lines aft, they wouldn't need this many crew on the foredeck!

Edited by - dlucier on 06/11/2004 11:27:55

Lightnup
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1016 Posts

Response Posted - 06/11/2004 : 11:22:43

Hmmm....I'm sure it's supposed to be a "best of both worlds" kind of thing but it seems almost sacrilegious to see a sailboat going that fast.

Steve

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Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 06/11/2004 : 12:08:40

Looks like al Qaeda with a new weapon--a sailing submarine. "Coast Guard approaching! Douse the main, pull the plug, DIVE, DIVE!"

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Lightnup
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1016 Posts

Response Posted - 06/11/2004 : 14:40:41

Or,"Just act natural amigos and the Coast Guard will never suspect there are 248 more Cuban refugees below deck."

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dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

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Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 06/11/2004 : 15:42:49

I tell ya...it's a lot easier to work on the masthead when you can do this...

Edited by - on

ClamBeach
Master Marine Consultant

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3072 Posts

Response Posted - 06/11/2004 : 20:01:09

That looks like the same guy in both photos (flotation demo and sitting on the mast)...
Dumping water out of the boat ???? Wonder what the story was behind the photos?

Edited by - on

oldsalt
Admiral

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USA
578 Posts

Response Posted - 06/11/2004 : 20:13:04

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by dlucier
 <blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Dave Bristle
 ...But I seriously question the strategy of leaving the water ballast tank partially empty...if the sails are up, the ballast tank should be totally full.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Just how BIG are these ballast tanks???

Ya know...if these guys had led their lines aft, they wouldn't need this many crew on the foredeck!

Who says Macs have high freeboard?

Edited by - on

Jared
1st Mate

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USA
70 Posts

Response Posted - 06/11/2004 : 20:58:57

Didn't you guys know that the M26 is a very capable bluewater boat. We must just be jealous...

http://www.eskimo.com/~mighetto/p11.htm

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Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 06/12/2004 : 00:41:47

They are marketing photos from Mac. The sunk one shows the positive flotation, the tilted one shows the cockpit and hatches will not flood. (with no ballast!)

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ClamBeach
Master Marine Consultant

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3072 Posts

Response Posted - 06/12/2004 : 10:21:51

IMHO Roger MacGregor is a brilliant innovator and designer... it's just that most of his recent designs don't fit very well with our traditional view of what a sailing vessel should look like.

His older works... like the M25 and especially the V23 (Venture of Newport) were good looking boats and sail well for their design parameters (trailerable by a passenger car). The original M26 water ballast is a pretty fast boat (watch our for downwind broaches though).

The new motorsailer designs do work well for their intended purpose... lotsa room, they do everything ok, but nothing great, and appeal to wide range of people (excluding traditionalists).

I did like the part in their literature about racing... has anyone on this forum ever seen a 26x or 26m in a regatta? (other than a charity event)

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