Is the macgregor 26 on Sea really so bad as they say

[Jim Cate]

That said, there is a guy here who I see sailing his 26 out to the islands now and then, and he seems to be fine,

Well, Don, I made quite a few trips to Sta Cruz Island in my Catalina 22, complete with ex-wife and two young kids. But I have no illusions about the seaworthyness of that boat. We managed ok, and I raced her in SF Bay for several years in strong winds, but knew enough to avoid severe weather... and I'd include gale force winds in that category.

And we used to beat the Mac 26s (not the model under discussion) some of the time... they were the start just ahead of ours!

Jim

[Don C L]

Well when I say "seems to be fine" I mean I see him at the islands and I see him at the harbor, so I am assuming he sailed/motored across fine. The weather has been calm the times I have seen him.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by boatman61

No one is trying to kid anyone..
The OP asked if the boat was okay for a certain purpose and many answered that it was.. and it is,
I doubt he has any intention of racing it round the cans or sailing it to Italy.. though it could be done following the coast and weather windows.
Okay.. We get it, you like your boat but it cant do what a Mac can any more than a Mac can do what yours is capable of.. Horses for courses.

Actually it can, my boat is faster than the Mac in most any wind conditions especially with a newbie sailor at the helm.

The PHRF for the Mac is only 18 below mine if sailed to it's rating. Sailing it to it's rating is the problem

You probably need to stick with what you know which is delivery and cruising long distances.

I'll handle the performance aspect.

I once met two Mac 26X sailboats near the CBBT. We were all being sweep toward the bridge due to the tide. I caught up to them then sailed on ahead and beat them to the shore line by a mile. We were sailing to windward in light winds against a strong tide They didn't know how to handle the wind combined with the tide and currents in deep water. That's a racers area

[thomm225]

The point is why not buy a real boat unless you are way inland and sailing on a lake then the Mac is fine.

If near the coast, buy something you can day sail or cross an ocean with

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Actually it can, my boat is faster than the Mac in most any wind conditions especially with a newbie sailor at the helm.

The PHRF for the Mac is only 18 below mine if sailed to it's rating. Sailing it to it's rating is the problem

You probably need to stick with what you know which is delivery and cruising long distances.

I'll handle the performance aspect.

I once met two Mac 26X sailboats near the CBBT. We were all being sweep toward the bridge due to the tide. I caught up to them then sailed on ahead and beat them to the shore line by a mile. We were sailing to windward in light winds against a strong tide They didn't know how to handle the wind combined with the tide and currents in deep water. That's a racers area

Oh.. You can park your boat on the beach without it falling over.. Congratulations.
You need to get the eyedrops out and read..
God save us from macho boy racers with go faster stripes..

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Oh.. You can park your boat on the beach without it falling over.. Congratulations.
You need to get the eyedrops out and read..
God save us from macho boy racers with go faster stripes..

As you know I raced beach cats for years and the beach is no place for a sailboat

You have to dodger little old ladies wading and children....

Better to park in maybe 4.5 ' (my boat draws 4') then anchor and walk in!!

[john61ct]

OP specifically wants easy transport, launching and recovery with a trailer.

If you know of bluewater monohulls under 8'6" beam that fit those parameters, please post them here as well: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ts-193354.html

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by thomm225

>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


You probably need to stick with what you know which is delivery and cruising long distances.

I'll handle the performance aspect.

I once met two Mac 26X sailboats near the CBBT. We were all being sweep toward the bridge due to the tide. I caught up to them then sailed on ahead and beat them to the shore line by a mile. We were sailing to windward in light winds against a strong tide They didn't know how to handle the wind combined with the tide and currents in deep water. That's a racers area

thomm,


Perhaps a little humility would be in order, and that's not what boatie said anyway.


Jim Cate and many others are fine examples of how to express your own experience without shouting "Hey, look at me, I'm better!"


It's tiresome, really.


I had a Catalina 22 and raced it, once! My wife was at the helm when we slam dunked another competitor when we got in front of him enough for us to get on a starboard tack right in front of him. Gee, big deal - NOT!


I, too, raced on SF Bay on this boat and had a wonderful learning curve with helpful friendly competitors in our one-design fleet. Learned a lot and did well, sometimes. But it was the enjoyment and fun with a nice bunch of folks that was the attraction.


And the sailing, always the sailing. Being out on the water and not behind a screen. And I'm fortunate to be on my boat now. Winter's over!!!



Perhaps you could choose to stick to the question that was raised, stop praising yourself, and help the OP.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by thomm225

As you know I raced beach cats for years and the beach is no place for a sailboat

You have to dodger little old ladies wading and children....

Better to park in maybe 4.5 ' (my boat draws 4') then anchor and walk in!!

And I sailed open bridge deck 21 and 26ft Tiki's across the English Channel to Cherbourg and the Channel Islands, big deal.. no support boats for rescue either.. Shock, Horror..
There-s beaches folk like to visit where land access is not possible, a Mac is great for that, also the OP can tow the kids on Bananas, Donuts or even kneeboard.. try that with your Bristol.
Its a multi purpose trailer toy which suits many, not everyone's into bashing around a bay then saying how knackered they are when they get back.
Oh.. and my Tiki's looked great on the beach.. as to anchoring a full keel 4ft draught boat in 4.5ft of water. no comment.

[BayCoastal]

I owned a MacGregor 26M for a couple of years and sailed it on the San Francisco Bay. I can say from experience it is not a great boat for strong winds or currents. It is very light so even though it will point high to the wind if there’s even modest current it’s hard to make progress. A positive is that they usually have 50 horse or more engines so it’s very easy to dodge weather if you need to or go to plan B to get where you're going. It would be much better as a lake boat.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

thomm,

Perhaps a little humility would be in order, and that's not what boatie said anyway.

Jim Cate and many others are fine examples of how to express your own experience

I had a Catalina 22 and raced it, once! My wife was at the helm when we slam dunked another competitor when we got in front of him enough for us to get on a starboard tack right in front of him. Gee, big deal - NOT!


I, too, raced on SF Bay on this boat and had a wonderful learning curve with helpful friendly competitors in our one-design fleet. Learned a lot and did well, sometimes. But it was the enjoyment and fun with a nice bunch of folks that was the attraction.


And the sailing, always the sailing. Being out on the water and not behind a screen. And I'm fortunate to be on my boat now. Winter's over!!!

That's funny, I used to get attacked by Jim about once every other week. That hasn't happened lately and I hope it stays that way.

As far as the racing, it was fun at first but after a while the competition gets so hard core it gets old. With beach cat racing every round the buoy regatta is usually 4-6 races which means 4-6 starts and tons of buoy roundings. So when you do that hot and heavy for 10 years in Florida 9 months out of the year sometimes you wonder why you put so much time and money ( four beach cats) into it to win the Cup, the Broken Mast Trophy, or the Plate which is why I started liking the distance races more. Races of 15, 20, 32, and 100 miles with one start and usually only a few markers/buoys to honor

I mainly raced when I was in my 30's and 40's so there was quite a bit of testosterone involved especially on the starting line and at crowded buoy roundings so sometimes that does end up in some of my email responses especially if I'm responding after an evening brew or two

Some of it is in fun as with my response to Boatman because I know he can usually handle a bit of BS. Other times it seems funny but maybe not to those on the receiving end

But I guess it doesn't take much for me to get competitive be it racing sailboats, responding to other posters concerning my posts, or when playing chess

I guess its all about from who's perspective you are viewing the posts as to who the jackass is in any argument/discussion here on CF

As far as the sailing, I'm still trying to adjust to the slow cruising style of sailing but I guess I best enjoy pulling anchor at daybreak if the wind is up and in the right direction and sailing the 25-35 miles back to the marina on a Sunday morning or after a vacation sail with a cup of coffee or two

Working on the old boat is kinda fun as well plus playing with the solar and knowing you have the power and not needing any outside source to sail or start the engine should you need it.

Problems when the wind has cranked up to near 30 knots can also add a bit of excitement/fun? and so far I've been lucky enough where they didn't cause any real big problems or delays

[HappyRock616]

If you want a trailer sailer, go with a Hunter 240. Better sailing boat, easier to trailer.

If you want a power boat you can sail sometimes, go MacGregor.

[nedmiller]

I’ve owned and used a MacGregor 26X for over a decade. We have been on many lakes in the Midwest and big lakes like Lake Superior at the Apostle Islands and on Lake Michigan in Green Bay and will be on Lake Huron in the North Channel this summer. Note: All of these trips are in somewhat sheltered waters or within an hour or so of safe anchorage. We would not try and cross Lake Superior. With excellent plannin we could, but we don’t.

There are lots of opinions, often by people who have never spent a week or so in a Mac, sometimes only by people that “saw” one. There is a lot of confusion over how the boat was meant to be used. Because it has sails, people with 20,000# sailboats with deep lead keels don’t like the way it sails and don’t like that it has a big motor and don’t think it is safe. It isn’t safe where they can take their boats. If you want to go out in huge water sailing a boat that really sails well, get another boat. If you want an “adventure boat” that will take you to many interesting places, the Mac is a good choice.

Is a rowboat as bad as they say it is on Sea? Yes. It is. It is not meant to be at sea. The Mac can be pulled with a minivan, so it is light. The rigging is light. The fiberglass is thin to be light but it is handlaid and extremely strong and thick where it needs to be thick. I have never heard of a Mac fiberglass been broken by heavy sea. It has to be light for us to take it where we want to sail. We live in Missouri. Yes, I could have a heavy boat with heavy keel and rigging and thick fiberglass and stored two hous away in the marina in St. Louis and motor & sail all the way to Lake Huron this summer to spend a week the North Channel. Think about how much time and money I would need to take that trip.
The Mac is close to our house, mo marina fees, the bottom stays clean. We will hook it up to the pickup on a Friday and spend Sunday night in Canadian waters. A boat that’s got the kind of room in it that the 26X has must to be very light in order to do that.
We pull our Macgregor with an F150 because sometimes we want to pull it a very long way and we have a lot of added features. We sleep on thick foam and get up in the night to use a head that is small but you can close the head door for privacy. We cook standing up inside on a 2 burner Origo or the on a Magma grill in the cockpit. We were very happy to have the little furnace in the Apostle Islands! We have an Engel fridge, etc. All of that stuff that makes trips comfortable adds up weight. The Mac is a compromise boat.
In our compromise, we traded away the weight of the thick fiberglass, heavy rigging, a low sleek hull and great open water sailing for a fat boat that is roomy inside and has all the comforts that we can take anywhere in the U.S. and be there in the time it takes to drive there.
Aren’t we afraid of sailing in a light boat? No. No more afraid than a fisherman is afraid in a flat bottom boat. We do what he does. We go places only at times it is safe. There isn’t any place we want to go that we can’t go at the right time. Where we don’t go is big open water like an ocean or the middle of one of the Great Lakes. If you love sailing in big open water and find it interesting, buy a heavy boat.
In Lake Superior we were in 4 foot waves and felt perfectly safe. On a stormy day the 1’ draft let us tuck into a tiny protected cove with a sandy beach and we watched the heavy keel boats achored out in the wind and waves. Our big motor adds a level of safety. More than once we’ve seen weather coming and dropped sails, started the big motor dumped the water ballast and gotten into safe harbor faster than possible for a heavy boat.
Our compromise includes lousy sailing at some points of sail. If you love sailing a keel boat close to the wind, you won’t like sailing the Mac. We are willing to make the compromise because we use sailing only as a way of getting places for free. We do not care if the boat should be sailing a knot or two..or even three, faster if it were designed differently. If we were in a hurry we wouldn’t be sailing.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by boatman61

And I sailed open bridge deck 21 and 26ft Tiki's across the English Channel to Cherbourg and the Channel Islands, big deal.. no support boats for rescue either.. Shock, Horror..
There-s beaches folk like to visit where land access is not possible, a Mac is great for that, also the OP can tow the kids on Bananas, Donuts or even kneeboard.. try that with your Bristol.
Its a multi purpose trailer toy which suits many, not everyone's into bashing around a bay then saying how knackered they are when they get back.
Oh.. and my Tiki's looked great on the beach.. as to anchoring a full keel 4ft draught boat in 4.5ft of water. no comment.

Tough boats like a Bristol 27 with it's 4' draft can be fun parked close to the beach if you know the tide and are watching it.

Now when I woke up the other night on anchor at 1am to see that I had 1' under the keel I wasn't real happy since the wind was blowing about 20 knots and even though I was in protected water somewhat I didn't really want to have to try to deal with a grounded boat. Thankfully the tide was about to change. We'd had a couple days of North winds and the tides were up a bit so I knew I was taking a bit of a chance anchoring in 7'-8' of water at high tide the afternoon before. Normal tide change is 2.5' of so but this was a west wind blowing the water out. I sailed home the following day in winds to 29 knots W to NW and the tide was quite low when I got back to my marina where the wind was West again and a ripping tide running out

Some of my responses where I added a bit more negativity were when that video was posted that could convince some that a MAC 26X was built to handle the conditions spoken of in the video rather than what it was which was a couple guys playing for a very hours in big waves.

My son and his friends as teens used to do similar things on a Hobie 16 or jet ski jumping waves at Pensacola Pass which can generate 6'-8' waves on the shallow side under the right conditions

[Robert E]

Originally Posted by s/v Moondancer

But not my idea of sensible sailing!

And especially unwise/fool hardy with no reefs!