In article , egordon873
@aol.com says...
Duncan McC (NZ) wrote in
. nz:
In article ,
egordon873 @aol.com says...
http://www.eskimo.com/~mighetto/p11.htm
Myth#11 Mac26 is not for ocean sailing. Go ahead, click the link and
see just how good and seaworthy a professional captain thinks the Mac
really is. Dare you. Jeff expecially.
Wow gee whiz.
I didn't read all the guff - what a god awful website.
I did find this though...
http://www.ne-ts.com/ar/ar-407capsize.html
You can't blame the boat for that terrible tragedy. It said the guy was
drunk and it said this too: "The boat that capsized on the Fourth of
July and killed two children was overloaded and was being used
incorrectly, according to the boat's manufacturer."
"The 26-foot MacGregor, which is a cross between a sailboat and a power
boat, is designed to hold up to six people, according to Roger
MacGregor, the boat company's owner. The boat carried 11 people the
night of July 4."
"The boat's hybrid design uses a water tank on the bottom to provide
stability. The tank should be filled when there are more than four
people on board, MacGregor said. The tank on the boat driven July 4 by
George Dean Martin was empty, according to the prosecutor in the case."
The guy was dumb and drunk. Don't blame the Mac!!!
Agreed it was the skipper's fault - however, *when* do you have the
water ballast in?
Or better... when do you operate with no water ballast in?
IMO, that's a curly question - and best answered (unlike the info
online) - "all the time the boat is in the water".
It just isn't safe otherwise.
snip
Overall I think the Mac retains it's - it's neither this, and it's
neither that - label, sorry.
It's what you make of it. If you want it to be a saiboat it's a pretty
fast and safe sailboat. If you want a motorboat it's a pretty fast and
safe motor boat. It's the best of both worlds. Everybody who doesn't
know anything complains about the rudders. They say they are too lightly
built. They are too dumb to remember they are slender because they also
are a power boat rudders that have to be able to go throught the water
way faster than a heavy keelboat rudder has to. They are tuffer than you
think since they hold up going twenty or more mph. The rigging is light
so it's easier to put the mast up and down. It's a trailerable boat
remember. You can't make the mast and wiring too big or it'll be too
heavy to put it up. It's designed to be light and strong and is plenty
strong for the sails you get with it.
I would disagree and say it's not a very fast sailboat, and not a very
fast motorboat (people don't *really* waterski behind them do they!!!)
So it doesn't fit into either world.
I think the rigging on say an F7.5 or a Noelex 25 is about right - I
think the Mac is too light (but admit I've read of few rigging
failures).
I certainly have no problem at all steppping my mast, even by myself
(bit tricky, but I can do it - it's not the weight that's the problem,
it's hanging onto the lines and holding the mast up that's the tricky
bit)).
I'd guess the standing rigging is 4mm SS...
http://hitime.no-ip.info
What is the Macs?
I also thought (and it could just be the particular setup) that the
rigging on the Mac I went out on was set *way* too light - I have the
F75 set to a sorta dull piano twang tension (at a guess, twice as taut
as the Mac I went out on).
--
Duncan