Whoa. This thing handles like no other boat I've owned. There are pluses and minuses to be sure for fin keels, large spade rudders, and oversized engines. Today, it was all pluses.
First of all, Mack Boring now recommends that for the first 10 or 20 hours of operation (preferably 20), you should run the engine hard. They want it at 80% or more of full throttle for most of the time, wide open for a few minutes periodically, and virtually no idling with no load. So, with our engine rated at 3200 RPM max, 80% is about 2600 RPM, give or take. We were making over 9 knots through the water, and close to 10 with some current with us. It was wild travelling over 8 knots with adverse current!
We had a whopping 4 to 8 knots of wind on the Hudson today, so we weren't breaking any records under sail. But even still, we were able to sail at 3 to 4 knots at various points in time. No complaints about that!
She also handled phenomenally well around the docks. I was a little concerned about this because of the folding prop, but she handled great. We used the bow thruster just to make sure it worked, but we didn't need it at all. The boat responds to the helm so quickly and she turns so sharply, even at very low speeds, that she made me look like I actually know what I'm doing, and believe me I don't.
And the furling systems worked great too. The main comes out and goes in by hand, with no winches. Of course, it was a very light wind day, so I could see that changing when it's honking.
So far, so good. It's obviously very early in the lifelong process, but I couldn't be more pleased with the boat and the dealer at this stage.
I hope these posts are not annoying people.
Connect with Facebook
