# Just testin' the waters



## Locke (Jan 6, 2019)

Howdy Howdy,
Y'all can call me Locke, that guy, or whatever you want so long as I get called to dinner. I've got some questions and figured that it'd be best to introduce myself before I go be a pest. So here's a bit about me.
I'm new to sailing but I've been lurking here and a few other places for quite some time now. I'm actually looking to buy my first sailboat here in a week or two. Got my sights set on a Mac 22. Looks to be in pretty good shape and unmolested as far as I can tell. Definitely something I can work with. I've been sailing a few times on a friend's Mac 26s and enjoyed that immensely. I've always wanted a boat and now I found one in my price range in good condition. I'm jumping on it. I'll be soloing for the most part and I thought that something like the Mac 22 would be about perfect for me and my needs. I can certainly go into great detail as to how I came to that decision but that'd get a bit wordy for an introduction. 
So, me:
1) in my early thirties
2) love the water despite living in a near desert like area for all my life.
3) I'm into most anything that can get me outdoors and especially out on the water. I hunt, fish, camp, hike, sail (soon I hope), and generally make a pest of my self.
I'm into long walks on the beach, snuggling under warm blankets, and occasionally getting out on the water. :2 boat:

Hope I don't annoy y'all too awful much, everything I do, while not always with the best intentions, is meant to be light-hearted :devil


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## Barquito (Dec 5, 2007)

Hey Locke, welcome to Sailnet (as a contributor)! I'm sure you will enjoy your Mac 22. My first boat was similar in a lot of ways, the Catalina 22. I had sailed a fair amount with sailing club, and thought I had learned a lot. After owning a boat for a bit, I realized there was another steep learning curve to climb. Keep us posted about your progress, and ask lots of questions.


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## Locke (Jan 6, 2019)

Will do Barquito! I'm looking forward to it. I'm already planning a refit as soon as I get it as well as my first trip(s). One thing I learned early on about boats, there's always something else to learn.


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## HUGOSALT (Jun 15, 2004)

Welcome to SN Locke,
Not to worry as pests are welcome here.
Mostly cause of our collective need to pick on/harass 
new blood, light hearted and with the best of intentions of course.
You picked a good time to start posting as many of us here are going 
thru withdrawal. (Just finished covering my boat today here in Long Island, N.Y.)
Where are you located/planning to cruise? We will need this info to be able to inform
you are doing it all wrong, going the wrong way...err I mean help ease you into the sailing life.
Did I mention the withdrawal systems.


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## Locke (Jan 6, 2019)

HUGOSALT said:


> Welcome to SN Locke,
> Not to worry as pests are welcome here.
> Mostly cause of our collective need to pick on/harass
> new blood, light hearted and with the best of intentions of course.
> ...


I'll be sailing along all over the place! Mostly in Texas. If this deal goes right then hopefully I can take it up to Yellowstone with me in June. Joys of a trailer sailer! I can also be out in the winter as it never really gets that cold here. Lakes never freeze. 
I look forward to riling up the old salts and my hull's thick so lay on the abuse!


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## gamayun (Aug 20, 2009)

Welcome, Locke, and good luck with the new boat. Sounds like you caught the bug, too. Feel free to rile up the old salts with news of your fun adventures, as long as you're not too obnoxiously gleeful about it :grin


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## Locke (Jan 6, 2019)

gamayun said:


> Welcome, Locke, and good luck with the new boat. Sounds like you caught the bug, too. Feel free to rile up the old salts with news of your fun adventures, as long as you're not too obnoxiously gleeful about it :grin


Rile up without being obnoxiously gleeful.....I can be gleeful and I can be obnoxious but I can't be both? Hmmm..... That's gonna be hard. I'm usually gleeful, and I'm mostly obnoxious. I'll figure it out!
As far as the boat is concerned. I'm still waiting to hear back from the seller. Hopefully I can get hold of this boat fairly soon I'd like to get started working on it. I've already got plans for what I'll be doing to it. Just wish I didn't wait so long on it.


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## timothybuege (Nov 25, 2018)

Welcome fellow newbie!
Where in Texas will you be sailing? I winter down here in Port Isabel.:ship-captain:


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## zedboy (Jul 14, 2010)

Good luck on your purchase, Locke. I'm sure you'll have a blast.

Don't worry if it doesn't work out - MacGregor probably made 10k Venture 22's, 222's, McG 22's - all about the same boat. You'll find another.

I used a friend's Siren 17, which is a smaller knock-off by the guys that were originally the Canadian license builders. My kids loved it, and it was way less trouble than my much bigger-and-heavier previous boat. Would have loved a slightly bigger version with some interior room. 

Try to find one with the pop-top.


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## Locke (Jan 6, 2019)

timothybuege said:


> Welcome fellow newbie!
> Where in Texas will you be sailing? I winter down here in Port Isabel.:ship-captain:


I'm in the armpit of Texas. Just an hour and a half northwest of Dallas. Near Wichita Falls. We've got a couple of lakes within a short drive that aren't too bad, but there are quite a few very good lakes within an hour or two. I was supposed to go get the boat tomorrow but things came up and I'm having to postpone it for another week. That's fine by me, next week is pay day so I won't have to tighten my belt as much.
Probably this next year I'd like to try that Texas 200 that starts in Port Isabel. I need to get some time behind the sails before that can take place though. Luckily the weather's not that bad around here. The wind usually isn't too bad, but the heat in the summer can get you and the ice in the winter will try to kill you. If you can avoid all the critters trying to poison, maim, eat, or otherwise ruin your week, it's not that bad here.


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## dadio917 (Apr 4, 2011)

I've always been interested in having a little Catalina 22 here at Tahoe. We had an O'day 27 here for a number of years which was great...but....really heavy to tow and took ~3 hours to rig/de-rig. So we'd rent a bouy which has gotten quite expensive at $3-$4k per season. So something smaller and faster/easier to put in and out of the water would be nice. I'm no expert but have been told that Catalina built the best boats of the "mass" production boat companies and that MacGregors were a notch below. And that with so many Catalina's out there more affordable to buy and maintain. So for Locke's benefit (and maybe my own) it would be nice to hear from someone that actually knows about these small crusiers. btw, honest question, no flame throwers please.


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## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

Welcome. I think it is nice to see younger folks getting into sailing. 
"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing--absolutely nothing--half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." _Kenneth Grahame


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## zedboy (Jul 14, 2010)

The MacGregor's are definitely built more lightly than the Catalina, but there's a tradeoff: the Venture/MacGregor 22 weighs in about 700 pounds lighter than the C22 (1800 vs 2500). That could be a big difference depending how beefy your tow vehicle is and how far afield you really want to get.

I think all these boats - especially sailed off the trailer - are really going to be used in the fairest of weather and protected waters. 

I switched an old heavy wood boat which was a bear to tow a couple hundred km's a year with a 4WD Nissan Pathfinder (probably 2 tons with the trailer) to a Siren 17. The Siren/Sirius were built by Vandestadt and McGruer, who had previously been the Canadian license builders for Venture, and I think the construction was similar. They were fine for normal use if not abuse, and towing it was such a pleasure.

If you've got a reasonable sized truck/SUV you should be fine with the Catalina, but don't set yourself up for pain if it's a car or small crossover, unless you're really staying local.


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## Arcb (Aug 13, 2016)

Locke said:


> Probably this next year I'd like to try that Texas 200 that starts in Port Isabel. I need to get some time behind the sails before that can take place though. Luckily the weather's not that bad around here.


I havent done the Texas 200, but I have done similar events and the Texas 200 is on my to do list.

I think the Mac 22 should be pleanty of boat for that style of event in the right hands. It has been completed in PDRacers, but I dont imagine those folks were beginners.

Time sailing is good, I understand the event is pretty windy, 25 knots, mostly on the quarter, which can be a handful in a lightly ballasted trailer sailor.

The big thing though, I think is going to be your navigation. I think the whole event is based on weaving in and out of inlets and bar crossings over shifting sandbars and reefs. Its not navigate by numbers/GPS type stuff. So, I would say practice your navigation if you want to do something like that, which can be tricky sailing inland lakes.


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## Locke (Jan 6, 2019)

I've been looking into getting a sailboat for quite some time. Long enough for me to know what it is that I'm looking for. I set some criteria and so long as the boat fell within those criteria then I'd know I was getting something that would work for me. My criteria were fairly simple
1) size, I wanted a boat between 15 and 26 ft. Wide range I know but there's reasoning behind it. A stoutly built 15 foot boat would be safer than a lightly built 26. A light 26 would be more comfortable than the 15 but the cost is durability. I wanted something in the middle. 
2) Weight. I have two trucks that I can use to tow a boat. My big truck is a crew cab F350 with the 7.3L turbo-diesel. It'll pull damn near anything I ask it to. Trade off is fuel cost and ease of transport. My other truck is a crewcab Chevy Colorado. 3.5L with 4000lb towing capacity. Better fuel mileage and maneuverability but less towing capacity. Long stop lengths too. I would prefer something the Chevy could pull as that means that it can be pulled by both.
3) Maintenance. All boats need to be worked on at some point. Sure there's probably some magical perfect boat out there that fits my wants and needs perfectly and is both light and strong, and comfortable, and yadda yadda. Probably can't find parts for it. A common vessel means common parts. Macs are more prevalent here than C&C or Oday's. Cats are common too but parts are more expensive and I'm a cheap bastard. 
4) Ease of sail. With the money I save getting a less expensive boat, I can rig it with better equipment and make it easier to sail. Roller jibs, autohelms, etc. I could easily spend more on a Cat but then I'd have to do without some things that would make sailing more enjoyable. I'm not planning crossing oceans, just small lakes. However a better built boat would be more comfortable and would probably sail better.
5) Comfort. I don't need much. Just looking for a place to sleep, get out of the weather, and camp. All of the boats I've looked into have had cabins. I would rather have a larger cabin than cockpit. Macs seem like they have a smaller cockpit for their lengths than most of their competitors. That's a feature that I appreciate. I would rather not have a bunch of people begging me to take them sailing. I want one or two, preferably bikini clad and hopefully female.


Way I look at it. The Mac 22 that I'm looking at fits my needs very well and then some. Sure there are better boats but then again the trade off is a much higher price. Higher price means less adventures. I'd rather have a good adventure than a pretty and dry hulled boat. Besides for a first sailboat the Mac 22 is doing pretty well.


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## Locke (Jan 6, 2019)

Arcb said:


> I havent done the Texas 200, but I have done similar events and the Texas 200 is on my to do list.
> 
> I think the Mac 22 should be pleanty of boat for that style of event in the right hands. It has been completed in PDRacers, but I dont imagine those folks were beginners.
> 
> ...


I've seen several videos on the Texas 200. Those guys in the PDRacers are impressive. Looks like running a marathon in high heels. Sure it can be done but.....dang... My hat's off to them. I'm pretty good with a map and compass. I've been using them for years camping and hiking so that should help. I'm looking into some sailing courses, as well as taking some navigation lessons as well. I'm good with pin pointing my location so long as I have land marks to sight off of and I can plot a course well. I have excellent eyesight as well so that's a huge help. Then there's the tried and true, follow the bigger boat. If it can make it then so can I.:devil


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## Arcb (Aug 13, 2016)

Except in the Texas 200, a Mac 22 is the bigger boat 

You will have fun with it.

When I said navigation, I wasnt so much thinking about position fixing so much as pilotage, reading the water. Bar crossings frequently have shifting sands and breaking waves, and nasty currents. The information isnt necessarily given on any chart. Falling off a breaking wave and landing in the sand with a 1800 pound boat can hurt. Bar crossings can be must make things on a small boat because you dont always want to weather a serious blow on the ocean in a trailer sailor. 

It just takes a bit of practice. The journey of preparing for an event like that can be as fun as the event itself


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## Locke (Jan 6, 2019)

Arcb said:


> Except in the Texas 200, a Mac 22 is the bigger boat
> 
> You will have fun with it.
> 
> ...


Oh yeah, the Texas 200 is mostly sub 20' boats.....Welp! :captain: lol
Guess I'll have no choice but to practice practice practice. Dang just what am I going to do with myself :wink
That's one of the reasons I'm looking into taking a sailing course. There's an ASA instructor in Dallas on Lewisville Lake if I'm not mistaken. Does most of the courses. I've also placed an order for their "Sailing Made Easy" book. I figure that it'd be good reference material at worst, and extremely helpful at best.


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