Jim Cate wrote:
....

The point is that most owners of the "real sailboats" you keep talking
about don't often make use of their capability. I think it's better to
have a boat that is sailed often rather than a boat that COULD be sailed
to the Bahamas but is seldom taken out. I think that the Mac owners
probably get in more time sailing their boats than most owners of ocean
going vessels..


I certainly agree that its better to have a boat that's used than one
that's not used. And for some people, the Mac should provide that
usability.

On the other hand, I see almost no Mac's where I sail in New England.
Giving the numbers, one might expect to see as many Mac's as Hunters
and Catalinas. However, I spend most of the summer on the water and
hardly ever see a Mac out there. In fact, I've traveled the East
Coast from Maine to Florida several times over the last 30 years, and
have only seen a handful of Mac's actually being used. There's been
one in my marina for the last few years, and I've never seen them more
the a half mile from the dock. In fact, to my knowledge, they've only
been out 3 times in two years. Some years ago, there was a 26X that I
would see powering out, but they seem to have left the scene.

I know this is anecdotal, but if Macs were actually used on sal****er
on the East Coast, I would be seeing them more then once a year. Most
of the contributors here are also based in sal****er - I wonder if
there's anyone whose experience is much different from mine.

My hunch is that most Mac's spend most of their time on trailers
behind the garage, waiting for that one week vacation at the lake.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.