Out here we occasionally see a Mac on the bay. 50% of the time, she's
struggling. We do one or more of the following...

1) stay heck away
2) circle and ask if they need help
3) show the crew how to use a cleat hitch if they make it to the dock
4) try to get my students to keep their voices down when they comment on the
low-rent rigging

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Jeff" wrote in message
...
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.