Cool new technology for Galactica!!!

1...Two new LED kits.

I followed suggestions from the MacgregorSailors blog. I replaced the two primary light fixtures' incandescent bulbs with LED circuits from superbright's website.

2...The factory incandescent light fixture lit up.


I really like them! They use only a trickle of battery power and are cool to the touch which will help in the dog days of Missouri summers!

3...The LED board and original light bulb.

4...The new LED light without cover.


This was a simple mod. Remove cover, unplug old lightbulb. plug in new LED board. I used two sided tape to center the board in the fixture. Replace cover!

5...the new LED light with cover.

Planning next sailventure! Truman Lake!

Although this weekend would have been perfect sailing, my honey-doo list is long. Having to stay home and work around the farm.

Hopefully, the weather will hold and stay great for next weekend. I want to put in at Sterett Creek Access on Harry S. Truman reservoir and sail up to the Tebo islands to gunkhole there.

Truman lake is one of my favorite Missouri lakes!

Mark Twain Lake, gunkholed in Happy Cove

The weather was great this weekend. Mid to upper 70's and sunny. Damon had ACT testing so I took care of farm chores and took a heifer to auction which should pay for the next round of improvements to Galactica. Friends of the Family came out and their kids fed some of the animals.

While waiting for Angie to be ready, I set up the mast...twice and put the genoa sail onto the furler. Afterwards, I put the new jib sock on! This should make it much faster during rigging time! As it was, we didn't pull away from home until after 4pm with a 100 mile trip to Mark Twain Lake.

We put in at Ramp 107 again. Figure that it's best to have a successful outing from the ramp I failed at the week before. Here is a picture of me taking Galactica across Florida Pool at Mark Twain lake during twilight.

We anchored in a small inlet in Happy Cove. While I shut down the outside, Angie set up house inside and made dinner! Chicken Fajitas, iced tea and a nice dry white Missouri wine from StoneHill Winery.

The next morning, we took our time getting up and taking stock of our setup. We drew up lists of what we need, don't need or wish we had. Here is a view out the starboard windows at Breakfast!

Angie piloted Galactica out of Happy Cove while I removed the Genny sock and rigged the sheets.


We sailed around for a while in extremely light winds. I hadn't put on the main sail yet so we sailed with just the Genoa.

I got a chuckle. I had Angie pull the furler sheet to release the Genoa foresail so that I could pull the Genny sheet to deploy the sail on a port tack.

She looked at the array of sheets and lines around her and said 'Huh!?' I pointed to the furler sheet which was cleated and she told me that I should have just said, "pull the Christmas line"... sigh, it's a white line with green and red stripes. So now, the official name for the furler sheet on Galactica is the "Christmas Line". lol

We needed to get home fairly soon and the winds were very light and fitful so I decided to switch to the motor. I wanted to cruise over to BlackJack Marina. We furled the Genoa and spun up the Etec. We cruised to BlackJack at various speeds as we broke in the motor.

There was a Beniteau attempting to sail in the light winds but they gave up as we were rocketing past. Another sailboat from the MTLSA (Mark Twain Lake Sailing Association) left the marina as we pulled up. We spun around and followed them until we hit the main channel. Then we opened Galactica back up again. We had to get to the ramp ASAP in order to get home for Sunday Family Dinner. All in all, we probably motored 3 1/2 to 4 hours! :)

Here is our camp stove we used. Worked great. I do not think that I'll waste money on a built in stove now. It was really neat on this trip. Heading up the highway from our place, a farm truck passed us and the driver gave us two thumbs up. Either he liked the Macgregor or just the huge pretty blue and white beast behind our old silverado. Later, while driving up highway 63, a car passed us with two younger men who honked, waved and gave us a thumbs up! That was cool!

Bimini on the horizon

I still have the old bimini top from my old Marquis Freeport. I ordered the genny track trucks today!

"Engine problem" fixed

Okay, I was hoping that it was something embarrassingly simple. Folks on the macgregorsailors.com blog said to check the linkage. I called Super Sport where I bought the boat and they also said to check the linkage to ensure it did not come off of one end or the other.

Putting the throttle in forward or reverse with the engine off yielded a free spin on the prop. This meant to me that either the linkage was off, the cable broke or something hideous internal to the lower unit.

I pulled the hood off the engine and quickly located two linkages. My son moved the throttle from neutral to forward to reverse. Only the throttle linkage moved (red arrow) This was encouraging. I pulled the pedestal apart.

The first thing I found was that the tilt switch wires had slipped off again. This must have happened on the trip back from the lake. I located the linkage inside the pedestal and moved it from forward to reverse. no change on the motor side of the linkage.


That meant to me that perhaps the issue was with the trottle lever. I started messing around with it and my wife said that both linkages were moving!!!

Turns out that it was idiotic user error. My old (1979) power boat had a very different throttle. With the old one, you pulled the throttle out from the housing and then moved it forward and reverse. If you wanted a neutral bypass to rev the engine out of gear, there was a small lever to flip.

It didn't dawn on me that the new fangled throttle was different. I had been pulling it out and moving it forward/reverse. This effectively is a neutral bypass.

Had I looked that the throttle handle, it shows an arrow to pull up. Do that and the engine goes into gear as it should! lol I'd rather be embarrassed by idiocy than have to have my new motor serviced! I hooked up my water muffs and started the motor to ensure I was right. The red circle shows water splashing from the spinning prop! Hard to believe I have many years experience with power boats!

So all is well that ends well. A learning experience for me. My wife decided that she will indeed continue to make payments... WHEW!!!

Now I've put Galactica to bed in her barn and am waiting for the next trip to a lake!

Mark Twain Lake, Early Spring!

Got up early today to load the boat. We weren't sure if the trip was going to continue or not with all the severe storms on Friday. They blew over and Though chilly, today looked great. Here's Angie laughing at some of my antics.


I still haven't gotten the depth finder fully hooked up but got the wires fished into the boat! We loaded up and were out of the house by noon, heading up towards Mark Twain Lake. We stopped at Kingdom City to top off Galactica's fuel and pick up Subway sandwiches.

Angie and I decided on trying a particular public ramp near the state park which we never used with our runabout. We usually put in at the free ramp at the silo near Indian Creek campground; however, we wanted a ramp with docks this time. This turned out to be a wise decision.

Mark Twain Lake is a lake that we all like. It's a relatively new 18,000 acre lake which is about 40 miles long and built at Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)boyhood home.

This is the first time Angie was getting to ride in Galactica and the first time we're using it since my introductory sail in it back in November when I picked her up from the Marina.

Being a clutz, I cut my hand twice while setting things up... there is a no-see-em sharp spot at the companionway. Angie has decided the two first aid kits are not enough--she'll have to replentish the one on the truck.

We rigged her up and put her into the water. While Angie was tending the docklines, I started the Evinrude Etec 60. It fired right up!!! Angie tossed in the line and I put the throttle into a light reverse to bring the aft end close to the dock.

Nothing. The motor stumbled and revved. Some bubbles appeared. nothing. I put it in forward...nothing. I checked the water stream to ensure the water pump was functioning. Lifted the motor some to see if the prop turned. Trottle up in reverse but nothing. It looked as though the prop spun slightly but not in sync with the RPM. It was like I had a Sheared Pin.


We decided that we needed to fix the motor. I intend to sail 80% of the time but don't want to be out without a motor. I pulled the trailer back to the ramp and we loaded her on.

After de-rigging her, I had drowned my pain in a very good bottle of Dos Equis! :) Angie got valuable time inside the cabin rearranging things and setting up house. I pulled the prop off but the shaft spins freely in neutral; however there are some unsettling clicking sounds as I turned it. I noticed that when it was running, it vibrated a lot more than when I used it the first time. Very Odd. Very dissappointing to say the least.

We bought a new boat because I always have had beat up old equipment and wanted reliability for a change. Time to see if the new motor is under warranty and get it fixed. So much for our first gunkholing mission at Mark Twain Lake.