Hi John,

 

I'm pretty unforgiving to the Mac... my wife has finally gotten used to it when I'm "washing the windows". She just puts her seat cushions on the side wall and sits there and continues to read her book.

And yes... last year I ran the race without water ballast... it was mighty tender in the upwind dog-leg. I'm not sure that it was really worth it.

And believe me... I've tried to rationalize a wing on the Mac. Kind of like putting a jet engine on a barge. I can see mounting it to the same location and stays, but... the biggest issue for a cruiser is it must be able to wheather vane the full 360 so it doesn't get forced up against stays and really load up while on the hook. And I can't quite come to the point to start cutting big gaping holes in it to do a free-standing. Maybe someday! :)

 

Dennis

BTW John, your email address bounced back this reply... saying it was no longer in service.

---

From: John <jrwells2007@yahoo.com.au>
To: Dennis Cox <dec720@att.net>
Sent: Mon, May 23, 2011 1:49:28 AM
Subject: Re: Rotating masts and wingmasts?

Dennis,
With your attitude to having a go at something different (as in MLM), have you tried sailing your 26 like a dinghy without the water ballast?
Putting a wing on a MacGregor would send some of the SA posters into apoplexy! Go for it! A good test bed for your wing.
John

--- In harryproa@yahoogroups.com.au, Dennis Cox <dec720@...> wrote:
>
> Sorry Gardner, I was writing that from a pub on my cell phone and was trying to
> be concise.
>   
> P.O.S. is defined as "Piece of $#!%" is a MacGregor Winnebago... great for
> pulling kids on an inter-tube, camping and simulating sailing.  Not much for
> performance.  It has a rotating mast like most Hobie cats.  Its tear dropped
> shape and the boom is mounted on the trailing edge, but its free to rotate as it
> wants independent of the mast.  As such when mine (or a Hobie) tacks the mast
> will ram over to the other side but its stopped by a... stop while the boom you
> position as normal.  The tension along the foot of the sail makes it go to one
> stop or the other... there's never any in-between on mine.  But since my POS
> "might" tack through 120 degrees on a good day, the stop is pretty nicely lined
> up where I'd put it to be setting up the air flow.  The following instructions
> manual show several pictures of the mast and on page 13 there is a picture of
> the boom attached.
>