It takes a silly girly-man fool to seriously consider a Mac 26Anythingerother.
Might as well sail a Dempsey dumpster...

Paladin


"Scout" wrote in message . ..
| Thanks to all for the posts. I drove 5 hours round trip yesterday to see the
| Mac26 first hand. For a number of reasons, it's not the boat for me. I think
| it will do almost everything they say it will do, it just isn't big enough
| for me. I like lots of things about it, but...
|
| One thing I wish sales people would avoid is making a statement like "full
| standing head room" when it would be far better to say what that head room
| actually is. I was very disappointed by how much I had to bend over in a
| cabin with "full standing head room," quoted per the Mac literature. Since
| they chose to direct their comments to a shorter sailor, I took it to mean
| they don't want me to buy this boat.
|
| It also had a very flimsy feel to it. The hardware looked too fragile and I
| could see things breaking, tearing, splitting, and sheering off. Again, if I
| weighed 140 instead of 240, it might be ok.
|
| I loved the look of the shoalsailer
| http://www.shannonyachts.com/default.aspx?id=6 but it's out of range -
| moneywise.
| Oh well, back to the drawing board.
| Scout
|
|
| "Scotty" wrote in message
| news | Some things I don't like about the Mac is the very high
| freeboard, combined with the light weight of the boat, can
| really get pushed around in a cross wind.
| The 'quirky' powerboat look, although the blue hull does
| help a bit.
| The small powerboat steering wheel.
|
| The cabin is nice and very big for a 26' trailerable. I
| believe the owners berth is 7'7'' long ( bigger than a Bendy
| 35.5.5) The cockpit is bigger, too.
|
| Scotty
|
|
|
| "Scout" wrote in message
| ...
| Thanks Jim,
| I appreciate your input.
| The 26M is not out of the running, and I'm going to be
| visiting a dealer
| within the next few weeks to have a look at one up close.
| I'm looking at
| quite a few others too. For instance, I'm looking at Jim
| Taylor's boats
| (Precision) because I've owned one and loved almost
| everything about it
| (just needed it to be bigger).
| In the end, I'll most likely see something I hadn't
| figured on and just
| buy the damn thing. I have a history of doing elaborate
| research and then
| buying on instinct. Some times it works out for the
| best, some times it
| doesn't.
| Scout
|
| "JimC" wrote in message
| om...
| Scout,
|
| I have a 26M purchased in 2004, and I do like the
| boat. - It has a number
| of features that make it a good choice for the sailing I
| do in the
| Houston-Galveston area. Whether it would be the best
| choice for you may
| depend on what kind if sailing you expect to do. As you
| can easily see
| from the Mac discussion group Bill mentioned
| (http://macgregorsailors.com/phpBB/), lots of Mac owners
| use their boats
| for coastal cruising, for trips from California to
| Catalina island,
| sailing the Keys, etc.
|
| Because it is designed to motor and plane, and because
| it has a
| water-ballasted hull, the Mac doesn't perform under sail
| as well as a
| larger, heavier boat with longer waterline, weighted
| keel, etc. It's
| relatively light (around 4,000 pounds loaded and with
| water ballast), and
| its hull is something of a compromise (semi-V bottom). -
| I bought ours
| after sailing a number of larger, heavier boats, so I'm
| aware that the Mac
| isn't the kind of boat you would choose if you expect to
| make extended,
| open-sea voyages. (For one thing, it doesn't have the
| storage capacity
| needed for provisions for such cruises.) So if you
| expect to spend lots
| of time cruising offshore or sailing in heavy weather,
| you might want to
| look at a larger, heavier boat. Hunter and Catalina
| also make boats
| somewhat similar to the Mac. As you probably know,
| there are lots of
| used boats of various makes, designs and conditions on
| the market.
|
| On the plus side, the Mac 26M is just plain fun to sail.
| It's the most
| popular sailboat of its size, with thousands of owners
| in the US and
| foreign countries. As you probably know, the Mac doesn't
| require a slip
| (no slip fees or bottom treatments), it's easy to
| launch, roomy,
| versatile, can maneuver in shallow water (they float in
| one foot of
| water), safe (how many other boats discussed on this ng
| have flotation
| that keeps the boat afloat even if the hull is broken
| open below the
| waterline?), etc. The motor permits me to motor out to a
| desired sailing
| area at 15mph+ and to motor back quickly at the end of
| the day or if bad
| weather comes up, so I'm able to get in more time
| sailing when and where I
| want to sail, and I'm able to avoid problems that would
| otherwise keep me
| from enjoying the day.
|
| There is one major disadvantage to owning a Mac 26M,
| however. - They
| aren't a conventional boat, they cost much less than
| most, and you will be
| subject to some pretty sarcastic ridicule by owners of
| larger,
| conventional boats. Your original note asked if anyone
| on the ng had any
| actual experience on the Mac 26M. - You got a number of
| responses, mostly
| negative, but only one of them (Bill's) was from someone
| with actual
| experience on the the 26M, and he seemed to like his.
| This is fairly
| typical.
|
| In any event, look around at all the options and sail as
| many different
| boats as you can.
|
| Jim
|
|
|
|
| Scout wrote:
| Does anyone have any actual experience with the Mac
| 26M?
| In my unending search for the right boat, this boat
| appears to have many
| features of interest. I understand that the sailing
| performance is
| compromised to gain in other areas, but if speed is not
| my thing, why
| should I care?
| If the 26M is a poor boat, that what trailerable boat
| in that size range
| (abt 25') can do better?
| Scout
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

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