MacGregor canoe launched (finally!)

[Dennis Rioux]

Full disclosure -- I started this canoe at Thanksgiving time in 2005. My preferred (and quite lame) excuse for what took me so long is that a squirrel chewed his way into my attic through a 70 year old piece of screen and the punky wood that held it in place, thus necessitating two summers worth of much needed work on the house.

http://www.phys.uwosh.edu/rioux/images/dormer.jpg

Nevertheless, today was the long-awaited day, with winds at 2-3 knots, gusting to 4 knots...

A test paddle before rigging for sail:
http://www.phys.uwosh.edu/rioux/images/maclaunch2.jpg

Start with a reef tied in the main, seeing as it's blowin' a gale out there:
http://www.phys.uwosh.edu/rioux/images/maclaunch3.jpg

Heeling waaaaay over:
http://www.phys.uwosh.edu/rioux/images/maclaunch4.jpg

Good profile shot showing how I forgot to adjust the downhaul after tying in the reef:
http://www.phys.uwosh.edu/rioux/images/maclaunch5.jpg

Under full sail as the wind dies:
http://www.phys.uwosh.edu/rioux/images/maclaunch6.jpg

Design by Iain Oughtred. Sails made by Todd Bradshaw. Thanks to everybody for contributing to this site -- I couldn’t build these things without it. More construction photos and driveway sailing shots are here. (http://www.phys.uwosh.edu/rioux/boats/macgregor.html)

Dennis

[Brian Palmer]

Very nice!

Brian

[Ed Armstrong]

Beautiful! I think a Wee Rob will be my next boat. I've considered the Macgregor, but my wife wants something that she can lift onto the cartop herself, so I think the 30 lb Wee Rob is the ticket.

Ed

[Scot L T]

Very Pretty! Well done!

That must have been some trip that was taken by the inspiration for many little sailing canoes, Mr. J MacGregor.

A thousand miles in one of those little gems, pretty interesting. I hope you have as much of an adventure with yours.

[BobW]

It doesn't much matter how long it took to build, it looks great! Very nice! Thanks for the pictures.

I'm thinking of a MacGregor for my second build (once the Goat is done) and following Ed's build as a tutorial.:) (Ed lives up the hill a bit from me.)

But first, the Goat...

Bob

[Lion]

Hi Dennis,

Very sweet - congratulations!

Lion.

[skuthorp]

Beautiful! I have sailed a 15'7" Mac for over 10 years now, and two years ago I lengethened the cockpit Aft by about a foot to make the cockpit more friendly for two. Solo I usually carry two sandbags as ballast (leading to rude comments about my regular passenger). I have found her an excellent touring boat, it seems you have stuck to the single leeboard as designed. Another forum member, Sofala, has fixed swing up double leeboards on his 13'6'' version. A bit difficult to re-enter flooded in deep water is my greatest criticism. but I find you can push it quite hard if you don't let it heel too much. I've had mine skip sideways, bearing up on the angled leeboard and dropping me in the drink behind it! Have loads of fun and hours of pleasant sailing, I have.

[andrewdarius]

Looks great, and nice color scheme.

Andy

[Richard Jones]

Beautiful! Enjoy! But, get your priorities straight. Boats first! The house ain't gonna fall down. Although, this is an ongoing debate with my wife...

[Dennis Rioux]

Thanks, everyone, for the compliments and sharing your experiences. I really enjoy building boats and learning more about them here.

Richard -- Yes, I hope I did at least a 15-year job on the house for a little uninterrupted boatbuilding time. Working on a kayak for my wife now, then on to sprucing up her family's Thompson runabout. Should be good to go on boat projects for at least a year...

skuthorp -- Yes, I went with the as-designed leeboard arrangement but I have many photos of various other mounting methods archived in case I want to go that route. I need to get some experience sailing it first to see what works with regards to the sheets, the tiller/foot-pedals, the leeboard. Quite a lot going on. How do you manage to recover from a capsize or just being deposited outside the cockpit? I imagine it takes a bit of sorting out. As for lengthening the cockpit, I should have done that, too, based on my wife's comments when we were out there together yesterday. She didn't like sitting knees-up so much. So you ripped out your original bulkhead and installed a new one?

Ed -- I am not very strong and I really have a hard time handling the decked 15' 8" MacGregor by myself if I care how much it gets banged around. I haven't weighed it yet but it is pretty beamy and unwieldy. I'll see if I can't get a weight in the next little while and let you know -- I am sure it will come out a bit above design weight because of the brass rub strips and mast boxes I built into the flotation compartments. Anyway, I know I can't lift this hull onto my station wagon without assistance. Hmm, maybe I need to build a Wee Rob myself.

[River Sailor]

Nice job, Dennis!

I've been wondering how you've been doing.

My P 14 has been interrupted numerous times by life in general as well as specific remodeling projects (we don't have the squirrel problem, but get big, loooooong black snakes in the oddest places). So I understand about slow builds. The pictures you mailed have been a constant inspiration and education. I often puzzle over them and finally exclaim, "Oh, that's how he did that!"

Congratulations again on the MacGregor. You're biggest problem now might be which boat to use on a given day?! How are you enjoying Isentropic?

John

[landlocked sailor]

Exquisite Dennis; a lovely rendition of a lovely design. Fair Winds, Rick

[James McMullen]

I give you joy, my dear Captain! A most proper little vessel, to be sure.

[Dennis Rioux]

For the record, I just did finally weigh my decked MacGregor canoe. With the floorboards in and hatch covers on but no other gear installed the canoe weighs 76 lbs. The bundle of sails, sticks, leeboard, rudder, foot pedals, and one of the double paddles checks in at another 34 lbs. That's using 4 mm okume ply, ash stems and keelson, douglas fir deck framing, mahogany coaming and trim, and brass half oval.

And a couple shots sailing in more light wind on Lake Superior at place on the Keweenaw Peninsula called Hermit's Cove over labor day weekend. I am always amazed to see Superior like this.
Dennis

http://www.phys.uwosh.edu/rioux/images/athermitscove1.jpg

http://www.phys.uwosh.edu/rioux/images/athermitscove2.jpg

[mcdenny]

Dennis,

Beautiful boat. Oughtred is a real artist.

Nice shot of the big lake, too. Don't tip over, it's a little colder than Winnebago.;)

[sofala]

well done, Dennis. She looks fantastic.

How have you ended up fixing the leeboards?
Do they swivel or are they on rope?
Also, I find having a bag of sand ballast near my feet helps her go about and adds some extra stability when the wind gets up.

Summer is on its way here and I can't wait to get out on the mac. Have fun!
Mark

[Yeadon]

I give you joy, my dear Captain! A most proper little vessel, to be sure.

James is building one of these ... I've seen it. Traditional cedar, clenched, the whole nine yards. It's hanging up in his shop's rafters, waiting for another couple rounds of planking.

I've never sailed a sailing canoe, but it looks like a great boat for an extended cruise around a hard to reach high mountain lake. It's light enough to hand launch?

[sofala]

I see you have already answered my leeboard question.

[Dennis Rioux]

Denny -- Yeah, but it was in the 80s up there for that whole weekend and even I, non-swimmer extraordinaire, took the plunge a couple times. The clarity of the water was something else, too -- Winnebago is usually quite green by that time of the summer. On the other hand, it's what you can't see in the Superior water that is more worrisome -- there are tons and tons of "stamp sands" in the water nearby from the copper mining days undoubtedly leeching heavy metals to this day :eek:.

Mark -- Only the one leeboard on a line attached to the keelson. After having been out sailing a whole three times, I can see why people might want something attached to the side decks. The rope rests on my thigh -- not uncomfortably so and I can kind of scootch around to keep my feet in contact with the foot pedals. But it is a little awkward. I think a long tiller stick would help relieve some of the discomfort that comes after puttering around that way for a couple hours. I have to say, though, the single board on a line is very quick and easy to switch over. When I get enough experience to get out in real wind I will try the sandbag trick for getting through the eye of the wind -- I needed to back the mainsail to complete my tacks in these light airs (I think I've got the terminology correct :rolleyes:).

Yeadon -- Knowing James it is a thing of absolute beauty. Hope he'll share some photos when it's done. If by hand launch you mean with a friend to help on one end, then yes :). I'm not very strong and it's pretty much all I can do to lift the unrigged boat, and that doesn't mean I can do anything with it once I have picked it up either. I'm sketching some plans for a boat dolly that I can cart it down to the lake on, rig it right on the dolly, and then push the whole works into the water from the beach by myself. I'm sorry to say that probably won't get test-driven until next year given recent weather patterns around here.

Dennis

[Hwyl]

Very nice and well done

[Ed Armstrong]

Dennis,

You can see the dolly that I built for my Acorn dinghy in the attached photo:

http://www.directcon.net/edarmstrong/Acorn%20dinghy%20rigged%205.jpg

I just used pairs of lawnmower wheels with a 1/2" bolt for an axle. I've since reinforced the 2x4 tongue with another 2x2 underneath for strength. It works okay for wheeling up a ramp into the back of my pickup, then getting the boat to the water, but one of these days, I'd like to get a regular trailer so that I could just hook up and go.

Ed