Water Ballast in a McGregor 25' Venture

[Sunspot Baby]

A friend has purchased a mid 70's vintage McGregor 25' Venture. Most of the McGregors I have seen have water ballast.

Does anyone know if this boat is so equipped and if so where and how does one add and then drain the ballast?

George

[Liratram76]

This is the official link to the MacGregor website:
MACGREGOR 26 HOME PAGE

This is their page discussing the ballast:
WATER BALLAST

Although this is a newer model, I doubt much change in principal concept. Hope this gives you the info you desire!!

Cheers, Paul.

[Lodesman]

George,

I believe it's only the 26 footers that use water-ballast, and the 25' Venture uses a 600 lb swing keel. Here's a link for manuals: http://macgregor.sailboatowners.com/...kb/pdf/647.pdf. If your friend googles it, he'll find lots of resources for macgregors.

Kevin

[iiii]

As stated above, the Venture 25 has a centerboard (swingkeel). Owed one for about 5 yrs., lots of fun, but will oilcan if driven hard.

[Sunspot Baby]

Thanks for the info guys. I stopped by to see the boat yesterday and she looks pretty good for a 30 year old boat.

George

[RickD]

I just looked at one of these boats today as well. Wife and I spent the last 9 hours driving though to see it. haha. We went out to a distant city (3 hr drive) spent 2 hours going over the boat with the owner and then spent 3 hours driving home and stopped for dinner along the way.

The boat was in excellent shape - and is a 1979 model... and as folks have said has a swing keel.

Everything appeared functional and he just took it out of the water a few days ago. I have pictures of it taken about 2-3 weeks ago on the water and pictures I took today.

(Since we're getting our first boat we're learning as we go about a lot of things... this might just be our first boat!)

We'll see.

[Sunspot Baby]

Darn boats get their hooks in you don't they?

George

[RickD]

Originally Posted by Sunspot Baby

Darn boats get their hooks in you don't they?

George

That SEEMS to be the case!

We looked at two different boats yesterday.

They are boat older, trailer boats.

We're stuck in Colorado for now... and want to sail, so we're gonna probably buy something soon.

The other day I saw a suggestion... "But one you can write a check for".

One of these makes it just slightly out of my price range.

The other... no problem and a little extra for some fixin' up... mostly replacing some items inside, cushions, and a little wood working (which I can do, and have supplies aplenty in my garage work shop)

Of course, being the kind of electronics guy I am... all the wiring is getting redone, and moved. I don't like the idea of a gas tank sitting within a couple of feet of batteries and open wiring, fuses and the like.

Those things don't mix at all....

So... this evening, after my First Mate gets home from work we go over all the stuff we've looked at the last few weeks and decide what we're going to buy, then make an offer.

The only issue I have with the one I'm strongly interested in, is the distance... it's 180 miles away, over a mountain pass. That means either I need to get him to meet me half way or deliver it, or I have to borrow a bigger vehicle with a larger engine to make SURE I get over that pass.

The pass is 12,000 feet up and even though my jeep will tow it no problem, going up and then back down the other side of that pass is questionable to me.

12,000 feet is a very, very long drop if you lose your brakes you know!

LOL

(Besides, I want to SAIL, not FLY!)

[David M]

How much reserve stability is left on this boat if you have to tack quickly and dont have time to shift the ballast to the weather side? I think that is an important answer to know especially if you are in heavy seas. Or is this water ballast that is kept low and on the boats centerline?

[RickD]

The water ballast in the MacGregor is in a center section near the stern of the boat.

Its actually a large "bubble" in the rearmost third. You open a valve to let the water into the boat, then secure the valve when it is full. It is supposed to be about 1200 lbs when filled (I am taking the word of owners and manuals since I don't have one of these boats).

I looked pretty closely at one yesterday though to see how it functioned.

So, the ballast, in answer to your question is on the boat's centerline, near the back end and doesn't shift.