I take back what I said about the new Mac. It's no worse than the Mac I owned,
it just has a different layout and there are pluses and minuses to both
layouts. I was against you at first simply because I no longer have my Mac. I
have a dignhy (I don't even know how to spell it

In truth, me and my wife would love to have our Mac again, now that we live on
the coast. But when the time comes we will buy a Hunter, because that's the
dealer who is in this area--that's it. A tricked out 26 foot Hunter with water
ballast comes to 39,000 with the trailer and all the goodies. A tricked out Mac
with all the goodies comes to 10,000 less. Do you really think we wouldn't jump
on that?

The only difference is that we wouldn't get the 50 hp motor. Not that the Mac
doesn't sail just great with it--it does. But, it doesn't really need it
either. People get it for the safety. And man it provides that, but let me
relate this story:

We were on a lake and a squal came up, and we were out of gas. But we sailed
just fine with a reefed main and a tiny bit of the genoa out, and we sailed in
after the squal (about two hours) without a problem. And I must admit, on lakes
you can have dead wind, and it's nice to be able to power boat and still have
fun. On the coast, near as I can tell, there is always some wind.

The Mac is the best choice for going to Catalina, or sailing down the coast and
through the Florida keys. On the other side of Florida, you could easily sail
it to the Bahamas. If I had a Mac now, I wouldn't cross the Pacific with it,
but I wouldn't cross the Pacific in a cruise ship either. I have no doubt the
Mac would end up in Japan, eventually. But too many things can happen at sea to
a person, and they can die, and it has nothing to do with the boat.

If you sail your new Mac often, I have respect for you and your boat. If it
sits in your back yard or in a slip for its entire existence, as I'm sure this
Valiant does, it's just another way to waste money.

The Veridican