Are we all on the same page here???
This is a Macgregor 26.
Looks like a fine vessel for extended coastal cruising but I do not think that or any other outboard motor is going to get it up on the plane.http://yachthub.com/list/yachts-for-sale/used/sail-monohulls/macgregor-26/170410
My neighbor MacGregor 26 was alongside the jetty when I got up to MB this morning. I had a close look at her and noted the shrouds appear to be held in by self tappers.
Having more sailing experience than most people on this forum I have decided I would have a say and be blunt. To sail a MacGregor 26 on the trip you are looking at is stupidity. The boat was never designed for such a trip and to think you can just run the boat up the beach in WA like a Hobie Cat is not possable due the the extensive fringing reef down the WA coast. 35 To 35 knots of wind is not uncommon off shore, have you had the boat off shore in these wind and sea conditions? Put a little tide against it and you will have conditions like the Sydney Hobart just gone, I think you would **** bricks.All I can hope is you intend to do this trip single handed so as you are not endangering any body elses life. If I was you I would hope that AMSA don't hear of this venture as they may want a please explain before letting you go. It is ventures like this that make the authority's over regulate our sport. If you want to do an adventure like this, go and get a boat that is designed and built for such an adventure. Eg. An S&S 34. When it all goes Turtle, literally, you won't' get any sympathy from me. There is a line between adventure and stupidity and I believe you are about to cross it.
Hands up everyone who has commented here that has actualy sailed the whole length of the WA coast at least once.
Navy doesnt count
i have sailed fremantle to tweed heads over the top end in 2006. relentless wind on the nose against current. it is not a walk in the park all though im glad i can say i did it.i had to sail solo from gove to cairns as my young fit crew were too frightened to cross the gulf.i saw many yachts turn back for darwin. my yacht a x-yacht x372 loves sailing windward but against the current and those huge tides i was lucky to achieve over 2kts an hour if the tide was going against me. god help this macgreggor man as he has every thing against him. beach the boat every night? ha ha ha ha ha. wa was the easy coast to sail, leaving the kimberlies to cairns will certainly sort out the men from the boys oh and their toys, good luck
what i remember the most is 1 2 3 bang 1 2 3 bang and that goes on and on. you will break things including crew
GDAY Sectorsteve the trip should be fantastic or may be life ending if u believe some of the post on this forum ,im going to go up as far as i can and just see what i can expect.If conditions become unpalatable i will turn around there's no worries about it ..some people on this forum are right these boats are light weight ( not like s&s 34 ) ,But they are capable coastal cruisers which is what i intended to do all along .
cheers
Cheers felixdcat thanks for the input ,i already have the salt water soap and the solar hot water 20 l bags .as i said on a previous post i am in no hurry at all cant wait cheers mate
This is the main reason (amount MANY others) I would not attempt an long distance coastal voyage on a M26, especially on one of the most exposed and remote coast lines in Oz.
Took this at my local club, a M26 chain plate set up.
Issues are, IMHO as a someone who has done a fair bit of yacht rigging, set up a number of yachts from scratch, has 10 years in the industry and more than double that sailing/racing/cruising.
- Why use crimped swages, and if you do why use a hand tool and double swage? If done properly with a hydraulic press there is no need for a second swage, someone is cutting corners and covering their arse here. A minor weak point.
- Standard thimbles. Thimble should be hi-load eg, be a complete loop of have a bar welded across them. You can see these have already started to elongate, causing the wire to turn a sharpers corner than it is designed to. A major weak point.
- The connection between the thimble and the shroud adjuster is a hard point with not much S/S thickness. A major weak point.
- On the chain plate itself there is only two 1/4" bolts holding 2 x 4mm shrouds, seems way under to me.
We rigged up a 5.4m trailer sailor from scratch (built the boat) and our setup was at least twice as strong as this. We also rigged up a Shaw 650 Sports Boat which only weighs 350kg with a 100kg bulb and our setup was 4 times stronger than this.
And this was only looking at the chain plates. The forestay, the backstay and spreader attachments also looked just as weak.
I would be suspicious sailing one of these in a reasonable Freo Doctor seabreeze in cockburn sound, let alone how strong the SE'stly can be at Geraldton.
It's all well and good to have a bit of adventure, but not something I would attempt.....ever.
GDAY RUMBLEFISH
u have made some really good points .it is people like u that i listen to as u r in the industry ( rigging boats )when i bought this boat some 2 yrs ago i had no real idea to be perfectly honest as to what was good and what was bad as my last 30 yrs on and off was on a 14 foot hobie cat just hacking around . I bought this boat brand new 2yrs ago to cruise around , i sort of wish i had of come on this forum before i purchased it .further down the track i MIGHT yield to the relentless criticism of these poor little things and get a ( real ) keel boat ,however the fact remains this is the boat that i have at the moment and i would like to do a bit of long distance cruising ,so since u would recommend that i not take it out to even cockburn sound which by the way i reckon i have spent a few hundred hrs cruising around i winds sometimes up around 25 knots ( according to a anemometer ) with no apparent problems .what would u suggest ? .have u cruised or raced up the w.a coast line or traveled up the top end and is there aannyy way in your opinion that it can be done safely
cheers
I din't say i wouldn't sail one in Cockburn sound, I said I would be 'suspicious'!!
Difference there to say, somewhere 100nm north of Gero, is that help is readily at hand in Cockburn Sound, not so in other places.
I have sailed alot in WA, lived there for 6 years, did a few Gero and return yacht races etc.
I also raced a fair bit on the river and have seen a M26 take about 30min to tack up Blackwall reach into a seabreeze, decent sailors on board too.
If it was me I would want a boat that I could 100% trust sailing me off a lee shore in 4m seas if the motor gave up the ghost, and for mine an M26 is not that.