Welcome to Windarra's exterior and trailer modifications page!

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Until now, we've used a Danforth (Guardian) style anchor, but I've always wanted a Bruce style anchor. While I found the Danforth worked pretty well in sand and mud, we sometimes encounter gravel, weeds, and rocks when anchoring in non-designated areas. In these conditions, the Bruce is superior, and as good as the Guardian in sand and mud. The main problem was these things won't fit in the Mac's anchor locker, unlike the Danforth which folds flat. Bruce anchor recently had their patent expire, and the chance to grab a 5 kg. knockoff at 1/2 the price proved irresistable. This is the largest size you can fit without modifying the locker itself. In order to make this thing fit, it has to fold to a maximum height of 7". I cut the shank at an angle and removed enough material to allow the arm to drop down to a folded height of just over 6". The boxed section welded over the top of the shank is stainless. There are two 5/16" stainless bolts attaching the anchor shovel to the shank. One serves as a pivot, and is secured with a nylock nut, while the other secures it in the open position using a wingnut. I now use this as my primary anchor, and keep the easily stowed Guardian anchor below as a spare. Having both styles now allows secure anchoring on all bottoms. We also will now be able to do a double set at 45 degrees for storms and can reduce swinging room.

When the fish are biting, it's pretty hard to beat sailing along with just the jib and a line out. I originally mounted the downrigger on the port coaming near the back of the genoa track. The problem with that location is the cable for the cannonball would scrape the back of the hull. The best location is as far aft as possible, but I felt the skimpy aft rail wasn't strong enough to support a downrigger. My solution was to adapt my Scotty bracket with a rail mount bracket and a lot of grinding (the top of the rail isn't wide enough). To strengthen the downrigger and prevent it from turning on the rail, I welded a 1" stainless bracket to the arm of the downrigger, and screwed and sealed another one onto the small step just above the rubrail. I used a 2' length of 1/2" stainless tubing for a brace. When not being used or access aft is needed, the downrigger simply pulls out of the rail mount, leaving a nice stop for the hinged seat. (Tip: make sure the screws along the top of the mount don't protrude as they will scratch the seat when laid against it. - I had to trim about 1/8" from the ends)

When cruising with the mast off, it's nice to have some cover. A bimini would be nice, but for only a few bucks, you can build yourself something like this. I designed it to be as light as possible using 1 X 3's, and the ropes supporting the tarp are routed in such a way that sections of the tarp can be rolled up from the stern to suit. tI'm currently exploring ways to modify this so it can be used while sailing. I'll probably add a piece to the main beam so it locks into the slot in the mast just above the sail, and then use the main halyard to suspend it above the boom using a rope harness. The tarp and corner tiedowns would stay the same. . For use while sailing, it comes apart easily with 3/16" stovebolts, and can be stowed in the aft berth while underway.

There's a lot of areas to explore where sailing isn't really and option. On those occasions, I'll leave the mast, boom, and rigging at home, and head out in our little stinkpot. You still want a VHF and anchor light, so here's a way to use your existing mast head antenna and anchor light. After you remove your mast, remove the antenna and anchor light and attach them to a length of 1" PVC pipe. The antenna mount is an old relfector mount off a bicycle, and I reinforced the area where this new mast extends past the top of the stantion. I mount this on the port stantion that's abeam the mast plate. This way I can easily reach the thru hull connectors for the radio and mast lights. Since you only now have a single light, I mount it with a single bolt that enables me to pivot it up for anchoring, or forward as a steaming light (I knot, it's not legal, but a nice option in an emergency situation...)

The original transom backing plate was a piece of plywood secured with 5200, and soon required replacement. I used my crews old swing set for a support to lift the 203 lb. Honda up off the transom, and proceeded to scrape away at the old board (ugly job...). I then replaced the backing plate with a piece of 1/4" UHMW, and added another 3/4" piece to the top of the transom in order to raise the engine that amount. No new holes were required to be drilled through the transom. Since you can't glue UHMW, it was secured with screws (and of course, the engine mounting bolts.), and sealed all the holes with urethane caulking. Raising the motor 3/4" places the anti-cavitation plate near level with the bottom "v" of the hull, improving performance by reducing drag from the leg, while still preventing prop cavitation. In addition, the higher engine position allows more clearance for the engine cables, reducing the tendancy for these cables to kink when the engine is fully raised.

On those nice days when not needed, the washboard always seemed to be in the way. Our dealer (Gerry Berg) put me on to this one. I installed small 1" X 2" X 3/4" blocks made from UHMW which hold the board in place while lowering the swing up seat down over the top of the board. I also had to round off the top corners of the board a bit to get a good fit. Once the seat is lowered, the board sits there securely out of the way, and does a great job supressing engine noise and fumes (especially if you have a 2-stroke). There's even enough room to securely stow some extra fuel.

I installed this grab bar after having struggled too many times to find a good handhold when boarding from our dinghy or the swim ladder. It's intended purpose is a grab rail for use in handicapped washrooms. I found it at a local plumbing supply store. It's stainless, solidly built, inexpensive, and even came with it's own mounting hardware. Looks good too. A great way to throw another $30.00 at your boat!

Having the heavy motor permanently connected to the steering may be convenient, but this creates some problems while sailing. The engines weight not only adds an additional load on the steering components, but also causes the helm to react as if there is a lot of lee helm, regardless of how the rig is tuned.. While heeled over, the engine trys to pivot, turning the rudders to lee. This can be dangerous (you always want the boat to turn to windward if the wheel is abandoned!!), and takes a lot of the feel away from the helm, making precise steering for wind and water conditions difficult. My solution was to install a simple stainless bracket that allows me to easily "disconnect" the engine from the steering system. It's designed in such a way that when attached to the bracket, the engine will point straight ahead, allowing motoring at slow speeds.

Have you ever wished you had some rudder while drifting about waiting for your ballast tank to fill? How about having the option to drain ballast on a run under sail, and then being able to refill the tank before turning into the wind? Here's a mod that will allow you to do this by using the pressure of the passing water to fill the the ballast while moving forward. As you open the bottom fill-valve, the stainless scoop forces the water up and into the tank. (Note: this idea has not been tried on Windarra since adding the swing up ladder forced modifications to the valve - see "Interior Modifications")

The adjustable centerboard works by fixing the board into postition by having it to cant over and wedge itself into the trunk. This puts a lot of strain on the top part of the of the board. As a result, my board cracked around the seam and others have had problems with the enlarged pivot holes. To fixt, I opened up the seam with a rotary tool, and stuffed resin soaked glass strips into it, followed by a couple more 2" wide strips of glass over top of the seam. In order to better spread out this load on the board, and reduce its "wobble" you should consider shimming the board. Doing this will reduce banging at anchor,increase its strength, and make adjusting the board a lot easier. Cut out a piece of 3/16" UHMW plastic to match the boards contour, and screw it on, countersinking the screwheads. Mount this shim on the PORT side of the board, to provide additional clearance for the cable attachment bolt. I found this bolt was contacting the trunk when I tried to make adjustments while on port tack, making it nearly impossible to adjust the board. The additional 3/16" clearance for the cable from the shim will allow the board to be raised without being hindered by the trunk. While the board was removed, I also replaced the wire cable with an 18' length of low stretch 5/16" rope. The board now moves very smoothly. and is easily adjustable while underway (often difficult with the old cable and unshimmed board). A couple of tips: Make sure your hanger seats firmly into the top of the trunk. On some boats, the notches that hold the pivot pin need to be ground out a bit to allow the hanger to seat properly. Also, if replacing the cable with rope, grind down the sharp edge where the line exits the mast compression post to prevent chafing the control line. I found a Dremel tool taped to a stick with a sanding drum on it worked well.

Living on the West Coast, we sometimes get an "occasional" shower... Here's what I developed to run my GPS and Fishfinder cables through the pedestal without leaving them exposed to the elements when not in use. I used a 3/4" x 90 degree PVC elbow with a threaded end, and screwed an 3/4" to 1.5" adapter onto it from the inside of the pedestal. Tighten it until it is just able to turn in the hole cut into the starboard plexiglass panel, and run the wires through them, leaving about 8" of slack. When needed, turn the opening of the fitting up, and pull out the cables for attachment to the GPS and fishfinder. To stow the cables, stuff them back into the hole, then rotate so the hole points down, keeping them dry and protected.

For trailering, I've found that strapping the furler to the mast works best. To support the furler drum, I constructed this brace out of a 1" X 4" board. The ends are made from plywood (pine will split), and I've glued a piece of thin padding to the end that sits on the mast to protct it from scratches. With the furler and genoa tied in place, tie a strap around the aft end of the bracket to hold everything in place. The tongue was shaved to fit into the gap between the mast base and pulpit rail. Also, you can see the modified factory jib halyard block attached to the lower vang-bail bolt, which I now use to run the main halyard aft.

We made our own sail this year (a 140% crosscut genoa kit from Sailrite) along with a CDI ff2 flexifurler. The difference was amazing! I was impressed with the quality of the kit, and yes, if you are careful and make sure the first mate's Singer is properly setup, you can sew it at home. Plan on a bit of hand stitching when you get around to the tack and webbing attachment. The expandable pics show a trick for feeding the progressively larger pieces of material through the arm of the machine. Its just the cardboard core from a roll of carpet cut lengthwise. This sail fills nicely and pulls hard. It was also designed to be reefed, and maintains good shape to about 90%. To maintain light weight (I still have to step the mast!), I elected to use 303 protectant along the luff, and made a sailcover that I hoist up with a small line while at anchor.

In addition to shortening my forestay by about 1.5" in order allow turnbuckle adjustment with the reduced the rake, I've installed an adjustable split backstay. The only real cost was for the boom vang, but the job itself was easy to do. Other materials include: another attachment tang, 8 swages, 4 thimbles, about 8 ft. of 1/8" 7 X 19 wire rope, a wire block (eg: Ronstan #RF104), a couple of snap shackles and a 1.5" cap to cover the hole you'll need to drill to attach the tang on the port side. See the tuning and rigging page for more info. and drawings.

This shows how to add a switch for an anchor light without requiring the installation of a new deck plug. With this, you can switch between the running lights and anchor light by simply flipping the switch. You should never need both lights at once. The anchor light must be visible for 2nm. I made one by modifying an auxilliary automotive backup light by adding a separate ground wire (required moving existing ground from bracket) and stronger bulb. You'll need this light to gunkhole safely and legally!

Here's a way to easily tension the forestay without the tedious and time consuming task of loosening the tack, sliding up the drum, and tightening the turnbuckle. I'm dubious of claims that you can properly tension your rig with the adjustable backstay because some if not most of the mast bend is from the aft shrouds with their angled back spreaders. In order to attach the furler drum with a pre-adjusted turnbuckle, you will still have to pull down hard enough to bend the mast, even with the backstay completely loose! One sleepless night, this idea came to me a for a forestay tensioning lever. It uses the left over shroud adjusters from when I installed closed turnbuckles on the cockpit lifelines. Everything except a couple of stainless bolts was on hand! Cheap, effective, and easy to make - my favorite kind of Mac project! I've now pre-adjusted the forestay tension, and secured the turnbuckle with split-rings. To attach the furler, I simply loosten the backstay vang, attach the drum tang to the lever, and lever the forestay down to where I can insert a clevis pin through the bow attach plate.

One of my first modifications was to replace the original 1.5" ballast valve with the new valve (Windarra was one of the last with the small valve). Be careful with the cutting as there is little room for error here! I'd suggest you drill a slightly smaller hole than neccessary, and then enlarge it enough to accept the valve. I had to shorten and re-thread the rod from the original valve (the new valve handle was too short). I used the left-over handle to make a surge-brake supressor (below). Use the Macgregor part for this! It has a thick stainless steel slide, unlike those commonly found on RV's. Remember that an RV holding tank is maybe 50 gallons, compared to five times that in a Mac ballast tank! Also consider the consequences of failure when heeled over in 20 kt. winds! This retrofit reduced fill and drain time from 10 - 12 minutes to around 5. That means I don't have to power up for draining until I'm 8 minutes from the ramp, vs. nearly 20 minutes before - and that translates into more sailing time! This mod is a must for those with older models (pre mid '97). The only other related task was installing a new engine drain through-hull on the port transom (the new valve covered the original drain hole).

Here's a cheap and effective way to support the shroud and backstay chainplates. These covers prevent kinking while lowering and raising the mast, help protect your genoa sheets. and look way better than vinyl tubing! I used 1" ID PVC with caps. I then drilled a hole throught the center of the cap and cut a slot up one side and across the top. This allows the cap to be pried open enought to accept the shroud cable. The large picture shows this. I usually keep the cut slot turned inwards for appearance. The caps are then pressed onto the tube (without glue). To inspect or adjust the shrouds, just slide the PVC tube up!

To protect the hull during launch and retrieval, I slipped a length of 1.5" ABS over the goalposts, and topped things off with a tennis ball. The ball is secured with silicone. The bright color helps to see when powering onto the trailer or launching. You can also see where my D.I.Y. brake flush kit hose attachment is secured. The brake flush is a must for those dunking their trailer in the sea. It simply uses a length of garden hose leading into a "t" fitting zip-tied to the axle. each end extends into a hole drilled into the brake backing plate where I've attached a 360 degree domestic irrigation head.

I've never did trust the puny bow chock brace, so I welded in a stronger 2" support pipe. Now, when I crank on the winch, the boat moves into the chock, rather than the bow support moving into the boat! The support tubes base is back about 3" from original. It now also works well as a mounting place for a spare tire. Although I still have to perform the "Mac-bump" to get the bow up into the chock after coming up a steep ramp, I've found that waxing the trailer bunks with ski wax allows the boat slide up smoothly.

Here's a simple modification that mechanically prevents the surge brakes from being applied when backing uphill (driveway etc.). I used the end of the original gate valve handle (left over from the 3" ballast valve retrofit), and swaged a small cable from it to the brake actuating lever (to keep it handy). I then drilled a hole (angled slightly down) through both the hitch housing and slider. To disable the brake, I simply insert this pin through the hole, which prevents the hitch from sliding back and actuating the brake's master cylinder. This makes a huge difference when backing the boat up the driveway into its concrete "slip" beside my house. Make sure you remember to remove the rod when trailering!

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