The ropes / lines / sheets / halyards weren’t bad, but I thought it would be nice to start the 2017 season with some brand new lines. And it really wasn’t that expensive, under $200, which seamed relatively cheap to me.

I went through the Macgregor owner’s manual and scored a few websites for more information on what to order. In the end, I ordered directly through ca.Binacle.com. I’ve had good experience with them.

Here’s the inventory of lines purchased:

1/8″

• Jib tack tension line (blue) – 4 feet

3/16″

• Rolling furler line – 32 feet (white with red tracer)

3/8″

• Jib sheet – 44 feet (white with red tracer)
• Main sheet – 31 feet (white with green tracer)

5/16″

• Jib halyard – 48 feet (white with red tracer). This was from the Macgregor manual, forgetting that the default setup is for the jib to tie off to the mast. Our Macgregor has the lines setup to run to the cockpit. Should have added another 10 feet to accomodate this. For this season, we are tying off the jib to the mast, which cleans things up a bit and with a furling jib the only time we use this is when we are raising or lowering the mast.
• Mail halyard – 66 feet (white with green tracer)
• Swing keel rope – 16 feet (white with blue tracer)

1/4″

• Rudder ropes – 12 feet (white with blue tracer) – two separate lines, 6 feet each
• Furling jib halyard assembly – 33 feet (white with red tracer)

Wish I took a picture, it looks really nice with fresh rope!

And I wasn’t sure of what colour codes should be used, so I made up my own. You probably already guessed my strategy from above. Except I messed up on the tack tension line, that should have been red.

• Red = jib
• Green = main
• Blue = rudder and keel

Lessons learned

• Specified rope lengths were for stock setup. With lines running back to the cabin, add more length to the jib halyard.
• Make sure you get the colours right, otherwise you are going to be staring at this completely out of place blue rope stuck on your jib for the rest of the summer.