MacGregor 26


It's often noted that every boat is a study in compromise. We express
individual preferences for design choices balancing speed and fuel economy.
Boaters consider tradeoffs between larger enclosed cabins and maximum exterior
deck space. We wrestle with the benefits of flybridge visibility at the cost of
longer rolling moments and windage. Shall we power with gas engines, (cheaper
to buy), or diesel, (cheaper to operate)? There is no universally correct
choice, so the wide varieties of boats we own and enjoy reflect a healthy
diversity of taste and opinion.

One of the first decisions most boaters will face is the fundamental choice
between power and sail. Nearly every other aspect of marine design is commonly
compromised, but the vast majority of builders turn out a product that is
clearly definable as either a sailboat, or a powerboat. Few manufacturers
endeavor to combine the best aspects of a speedy, planing, outboard hull and a
nimble, fun to sail, cruising sloop. The MacGregor Yacht Corporation,
(represented in the Pacific Northwest by Blue Water Yachts on Seattle's Lake
Union), not only attempts the unlikely marriage of power and sail but has
invented a highly successful niche category of high speed trailer sailors in
the process.

Todd and Cheryl McChesney own Blue Water Yachts, the largest trailerable
sailboat dealership in North America. Cheryl took us for a test sail on a new,
2005 MacGregor 26. We quickly realized that while the MacGregor 26 is not the
"ultimate" powerboat or an ultra fine-tuned racing sailboat, it is a uniquely
enjoyable and surprisingly affordable vessel that offers a wide spectrum of
choices for enjoying our NW waters. As Todd McChesney observed, "No boat will
ever be all things to all people, but the MacGregor has proven to offer enough
things, to enough people, that we have a lot of very happy and satisfied
owners."

About MacGregor:

MacGregor Yachts began building boats in the early 1960's. The company business
model was conceived by a group of graduate students at the Stanford School of
Business.
MacGregor invented the retracting keel adaptation that energized the
trailerable sailboat market. Sailboats with fixed keels can be more difficult
to tow and nearly impossible to launch at most boat ramps, (the protruding keel
puts the hull so high in the air that the tow vehicle could easily be submerged
before the boat found enough depth to float free of the trailer). With a
retractable keel, a trailerable sailboat sits low on the trailer and launches
as easily as a small runabout.

When MacGregor first began building trailerable boats, families commonly owned
a rear wheel drive, body on frame, V8 automobile with substantial towing
abilities. As cars shifted to front wheel drive and lower horsepower engines,
MacGregor recognized a need to reduce the weight of the vessels to facilitate
safe towing. The innovative solution was MacGregor's water ballast system.
Water ballast provides the weight required for safe and stable sailing, but the
weight can be literally drained away when the MacGregor is hauled out on its
trailer.

Eliminating the static ballast allowed MacGregor to improve the performance of
the
26 when operated as a powerboat. One of the company's promotional brochures
includes a photo of an adult water skier being towed by a 26 MacGregor. It is
unusual, to say the least, to see a water skier zipping along behind a boat
equipped with a mast. (With a 50HP outboard, the MacGregor 26 will turn about
22 mph). Few people seeking a boat to be used primarily for water skiing would
chose a MacGregor, just as an extremely serious sailor might prefer a more
specialized and highly evolved sailing hull. MacGregors appeal to boaters who
hope to enjoy the fun of sailing and the distance-shrinking cruising ability of
a powerboat in a single vessel.

MacGregor can legitimately claim to be one of the larger volume manufacturers,
having launched in excess of 35,000 boats.


Meet the MacGregor 26:

The 2005 MacGregor 26 is constructed of hand laminated fiberglass, without the
use of chop strand or "coring". The dry weight of the empty boat is 2550
pounds, and the beam is 7'9" to permit easy trailering. (The trailer weighs
another 710 pounds). The general style above the waterline is reminiscent of a
small sloop, but there is a broad flat transom with an engine well that
accommodates up to 70HP outboard motors. With the daggerboard and rudders in
the "up" positions, the MacGregor is a planing hull, with a mere twelve-inch
draft. The cockpit will easily seat four to six, with a pedestal mounted
steering wheel and engine controls. Side decks are nonexistent, with access
between the foredeck and the cockpit routed across the cabintop. Fortunately,
Blue Water Yachts rigs their boats for easy, single-handed sailing from the
cockpit. The roller-furled jib also reduces the need to go forward when
underway.

The MacGregor 26 interior provides all the basic amenities of family cruiser.
An extremely roomy double berth is most aft, under the cockpit. Just forward,
to starboard, is a dinette that will seat four. MacGregor incorporates a unique
"sliding galley" mounted to port. The galley locks into three different
positions. When slid forward, it is opposite the dinette and there is well over
six feet of standing headroom available for the cook. In the middle position,
the alcohol stove and sink can be used with ease, and additional seating space
is created on the port side of the main cabin. With the galley secured by the
détente most aft, it is entirely under the cockpit but there is still plenty of
room to sleep two in the aft berth and sliding the galley all the way aft
creates an additional single bunk on the port side of the main cabin. Two can
sleep in the forepeak, and the dinette folds down into a single berth over
7-feet long. One could sleep six adults on a MacGregor 26, but frankly the boat
would seem more appropriately accommodating for 2-3 adults, or a young couple
with perhaps two or three kids.

Many smaller boats have no toilet facilities, or a "porta-pottie" arrangement
that stows under a bunk when not being used. Privacy on many small boats is
non-existent. The MacGregor 26 has an enclosed head compartment with a mirrored
bulkhead, so privacy is achieved without asking everyone aboard to "look
elsewhere." Blue Water Yachts includes a portable marine toilet in all but the
most basically equipped boats, and a standard marine toilet with a through hull
and holding tank can be fitted if desired.

Getting underway:

We didn't need to launch the MacGregor 26; it was secured to a dock at the Blue
Water Yachts office. Launching a MacGregor is reported to be an easy task, with
the aluminum mast easily raised or lowered by a single person. (There is an
optional mechanical device that uses a brake winch and support pole to more
precisely control the mast while raising or lowering). The forestay is the only
rigging disconnected when the mast is lowered, so setting the mast up again is
a simple procedure. Launching would involve only a minimum of fussing around,
once floated free from the trailer.

To exit the dock, we lowered the daggerboard and the twin, trailing, rudders.
Cheryl put the MacGregor into the fairway, spun it around smartly on the
daggerboard pivot point, and we motored out to Lake Union. The outboard ran
flawlessly. The MacGregor's "sailboat genes" allowed it to be very agile in
tight quarters.

Sail ho!

Once out on the lake, Cheryl showed us how easily the MacGregor converts from a
powerboat to sail. The first order of business was to confirm that there was
water in the ballast tank. Removing a cap from a fitting under the V-berth
allowed water to displace the air in the system, and we confirmed the tank was
full by sighting water within a half-inch of the vent fitting.

For purposes of our demonstration, we would be doing a "low tech" sail,
(there's a limit to what a stinkpotter can be expected to absorb). We centered
the boom over the companionway dodger. After removing the sail cover and the
bungee cords bundling the mainsail against the boom, Cheryl motored into the
wind and we raised the mainsail. Once the mainsail was up, Cheryl raised the
outboard, disconnected it from the hydraulic steering ram and secured it on an
adjacent post. Disconnecting the motor reduced the load on the steering wheel
to just the two rudders trailing off the stern. We were surprised to learn that
the extra point for securing the outboard was a Blue Water Yachts innovation,
and Todd and Cheryl sell the parts for this system to MacGregor dealers and
owners throughout North America.

We scooted along under the 170-sq. ft. mainsail, making surprisingly good
progress up wind. Cheryl commented that many sailors are surprised at how well
the MacGregor 26 goes to windward. There is a powerful, soothing, silence when
under sail- an experience that can't be exactly duplicated in a powerboat of
any type. Sailing is a natural, organic, experience, with Nature herself
carrying you toward your destination. Every time I go sailing, I resolve to do
it more often.

We unfurled the job and turned to take the wind broad abeam. It's a good thing
the seven-knot speed limit on Lake Union doesn't apply to sailboats- we were
flying! The planing characteristics of the MacGregor hull free the vessel from
the constraining bow wave that decrees a 26-foot displacement hull sailboat
normally sail at a "hull speed" of about seven knots. With a moderate wind on
Lake Union, we were clipping along faster than one would expect- and factory
sales literature claims that with enough wind a MacGregor can achieve 13-14
knots under sail.

We heeled over on the beam reach, but the water ballast proved to be effective.
Sitting on the high side of the cockpit and watching the chop bouncing off the
hull is a real sailing experience, (as it should be, since the MacGregor is a
"real" sailboat).

Cheryl called our attention to the MacGregor's rotating mast. The mast is
shaped like an airfoil, and automatically seeks the proper angle relative to
the wind direction. (The shrouds and spreader remain fixed.) A non-rotating
mast can deflect the wind and create a "dead spot" in the head of the sail. The
rotating mast all but eliminates the deflection of air away from the sail, and
the wind fills the sail more efficiently. The rotating mast, the shallow draft,
and the relatively light weight all contribute to a surprisingly speedy
experience under sail.

Powering up

Sailing the MacGregor was such fun; we could have spent all day just blowing up
and down the lake. Alas, time limitations eventually dictated that we douse the
mainsail, furl the jib, and experience the MacGregor in powerboat mode.

We hauled up the dagggerboard, lowered the outboard and reconnected it to the
steering ram, and hauled up the trailing rudders. Our top speed would be
slightly reduced because we still had the water ballast in the tanks; the
MacGregor drains the ballast tanks when hauled out onto its trailer. We headed
for the "speed lane" and throttled up.

The MacGregor 26 stepped up to plane very quickly, easily reaching about 20
knots with minimal wake. Aside from the empty mast protruding from the cabin
top, there is little difference between running the MacGregor at a moderate
speed opposed to any one of a number of traditional runabouts. Most trailerable
sailboats will motor at five or six knots, or about ¼ the speed of a MacGregor.
Fuel economy is said to be in the 4-5 nmpg range, a very acceptable number for
a 20-knot boat. Make no mistake about it; the MacGregor is a real powerboat,
too.


Conclusions:

As Todd McChesney stated, no boat can be all things to all people. There are
certainly higher performing, more technical, sailboats, (and more exciting,
speedier powerboats), than a MacGregor. What MacGregor does singularly well is
to combine a very wide range of fun boating experiences into a single vessel.
It would seem almost too obvious that a boat that can sail well and then slip
easily into planing powerboat mode will appeal to a greater number of family
members and could enhance the family's total boating enjoyment.

I have often wondered what happened to the affordable, family boat. It's all
too easy to attend a boat show and conclude that unless one is prepared to
invest $80,000-$100,000, or substantially more, it may be tough to go home with
a new boat on which a family of four would consider spending a week in the San
Juans. The affordable family boat is alive and well, and available at Blue
Water Yachts. Todd and Cheryl employ a "no-dicker" pricing policy and offer the
same low price to all comers. The Blue Water Yachts "bare boat" package
includes the bare essentials, (but no outboard), and prices out at $20,999.

There are packages that include 50 - 70 HP Nissan and Suzuki outboards, dual
battery systems, marine coolers, canvas covers, and much, much, more. The
extremely well equipped boat we tested at Blue Water Yachts was configured with
the "Super Cruising Package"; more than adequately prepared to depart on a
summer vacation cruise at a moment's notice. The MacGregor 26 with this
top-of-the line option group is still modestly priced at $30,999.

Affordable family boats are good news for the marine industry, as well as for
the families that are enjoying them. Cheryl McChesney expressed it very
succinctly.
"I really enjoy selling MacGregors, they make people so happy!"

One could do far worse than own a boat specializing in happiness.