We launched Macerella for the first time on Thursday after an eventful toe back from Wales. We picked her up a couple of weeks ago after the seller towed Her to a service station 10 miles the other side of Cardiff.

That was the start of the fun after assuring us that the trailer was good to go he decided to replace both sets of bearings both sets of brakes and put 2 new wheels and tyres on all at his expense.

I think that after we told him what had happened when we toed the last boat home ( Lost a wheel ) He thought He would look a right plonker if He had a similar mishap on the way.

Well He Turned up right on time everything looking fine assured us that everything had been replaced and we should have an uneventful trip home, We said our good buys and I drove out of the service station with 30 + feet of trailer behind me, down the ramp onto the motorway I got up to about 50 mph when all hell let loose Hippo ( My Son ) said I think She’s swaying a bit ( What an understatement that was)

I had realized that a long time before he had. I had read that the best cores of action was to accelerate out of it . I did not fancy trying that so plan B was to take your feet off of everything and hope for the best fortunately this worked and I Slowly regained control.

Eventually I felt brave enough to just touch the brake only for there to be a bloody great bang as the trailer over run brakes failed to work and the trailer ran into the back of us. Hippo another great quote ( Feels like somethings not working properly ) It turns out the only part of the trailer that had not been replaced had completely failed and we still had over 100 miles to do, every time I touched the brake a split second later the trailer caught us up then when you started to pull away the trailer decided to tag along a split second later. All this was accompanied by some terrific sound effects. Fortunately the car has cruise control and I soon worked out that at 40 mph all was well. We made it to Tormartin J 18 on the M 4 getting cut up and hooted a lot at by impatient motorists.

The only good thing was that we had planned our journey to start about 1800 so we should have fairly quiet roads and this did turn out to be the case. We were looking for a big lay bye to pull into to check the rig out but I had either gone past them or they had lorries in them so we decided to keep going slowly all down the A46 into Bath praying that the banging and clunking coming from the trailer over run was not going to fail completely. All was ok till we got to the Cleveland bridge and wanted to filter left. I know this junction well having lived in Bath for most of my life.

I took up a fair bit of road but some idot in a van pulled right up beside me making it impossible to make the turn when the filter came on. Some twat with a fancy horn started honking only to be joined by a couple more. After what seemed like an eternity the lights eventually changed. The next plan was to stop in a lay by that I was familiar with a few miles South of Bath and to my delight it was completely empty.

We both stepped out of the car dying for a wee then checked the trailer over, Hippo’s next quote ( the tyres are a bit warm but the brakes are as cool as a cucumber.) I politely informed Him that they should be as they had not bloody well been working for the last 100 miles He replied you are so easy to wind up Dad. ( Fat Bastard ) We worked out that the problem with the swaying was probably due to not enough nose weight. The truck he towed the boat with had a much lower toe ball than my detachable one.

So we strapped the spare wheel that we had taken from him when we bought the boat to put a new tyre on it to the very front of the hitch and this seemed to make everything a bit more stable. Just as we were about to pull away my phone rang and it was the seller asking if I had got home safely. When I pointed out the problems He told me that he thought that banging was the overrun brakes clicking on and off. I pointed out we still had another hour to go and would ring him when we got home.

We arrived home at about 2200 What a journey even Hippo said what a great job getting us home in one piece. Little did he know that I had nearly shit myself on several occasions. The first 2 beers did not touch the sides.

We have spent the last couple of weeks tidying her up cleaning and washing everything. We wanted to make sure that she looked her best as a lot of people at our Sailing Club had advised us not to get a Macgregor all the usual remarks not seaworthy, paper thin hull, mast not big enough etc etc. A sailing boat that will also do 20 knots is not a traditionalists idea of a suitable boat to let into the club.

I pointed out that the club rules only says that it has to be a sailing boat and a Mac is clearly that. The next question was why don't you just get a blue water cruiser. It turns out that most of the negative remarks had all come from people that had never been near a Mac. I pointed out that all there boats have to be lifted in and out of the water twice a year about £100 + The hard standing fees.

I pointed out My Mac would quite happily sit on its trailer outside my house costing me nothing and that I could pick and choose when I did any work on Her and always be sure that any tools were to hand and She was safe and sound. I also pointed out that I could take her any ware I wanted to she can navigate Canals and very shallow areas due to her low draft in fact I can take her just about any ware I want to go. And I also told them because the boat is trailerable it is much easier to sale it when you no longer want it and if it does not sale quickly I am not incurring any extra charges. I also pointed out that should I want to I can tow a water skier I can also get in and out quickly if I wanted to do a bit of fishing. I told them THATS WHY I WANTED A MAC

Everybody and there Brother turned out to see us launch this monster from the trailer all the boats of a similar size need a crane. The launch went well and a lot of people seem to have changed their mind about Mac’s she now sits proudly on Her new mooring with everybody dropping by to have a nose even B ( My Wife ) said she likes Her praise indeed.

Just had to share this little adventure

Stay Safe Mike