Donals Dilema wrote in message
...
On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 21:52:50 -0500, "John Cairns"
wrote:

I think we're on opposite tacks. When we say "motorsailer", we think of a
vessel that will sail reasonably well, and motor reasonably well. An
experienced sailor told me that the "old" Mac26X sailed very badly
indeed,
if the wind was under 8kts. you couldn't get the boat to move. I remember
myself last season trying out my new a-sail in very light winds, 4kts.
IIRC,
sailing by a Mac26x that didn't appear to be moving at all, sails up. It
didn't occur to me at the time, I figured he was just a novice and
couldn't
get the boat to move. He probably wouldn't have been able to get the boat
to
move under sail in those gentle breezes in any event. It appears that
MacGregor has made some modifications to improve the sailing efficiency
of
the boat, but I would consider it more of a powerboat with a mast than a
"motorsailer", indeed, even MacGregor doesn't call it a "motorsailer"
John Cairns

Who's this "we"?
When I think of a motor sailer, I think of a boat that usually has a
closer resemblance to a powerboat than a yacht, motors very well, and
sails off the wind quite well to conserve fuel. Few if any sail upwind
with anything like grace and require at least 8kts to accomplish
anything remotely like sailing.
Mac call it a power sailer probably because it has a higher
power:weight ratio than the usual overladen motor sailer.


Oz1...of the 3 twins.

I welcome you to crackerbox palace,We've been expecting you.



Bad habit of mine, should have said "I". This is my idea of a motorsailer,
in fact the only one I've ever seen up close looked something like this-
http://www.caborico.com/ne/index.html

Now I personally don't know how well this boat sails, but I have heard
expert testimony on the subject of how the Mac sails and I'm inclined to
believe it, the gist of it was that the mac had a very narrow sailing range
of between 8-10 kts., and to quote the fellow "it sailed terribly".
John Cairns