We own a 26S (Swing keel) and are currently updating it and outfitting it for extended
family outings. That's the goal/hope at least. If you haven't seen this site, have a look. This
family did it - and with big
dogs too! These guys are my inspiration. Both in terms of "doing it" and a lot of the modifications he's made to his Mac.
Lake Powell sailboat and kayak trip
We're rewiring this spring to accommodate the needs of the family (USB chargers and reading lamps in the berths). Bought an Omnia
oven to try out this season and am hanging 160watts of
solar somehow (likely building a
solar arch at the back).
We looked at an X before
buying the C (classic) and while the
headroom was much nicer and the enclosed
head was a bit more functional than on the C we determined we wanted a sailboat, not a
motorsailer. We bought ours out of White Rock and it hauled home over the rockies just fine with dad's 4-Runner. I hauled it around Alberta with a Chev Trailblazer (rated at 3500#) for two seasons and it was fine (all without
trailer brakes). I now haul with an Avalanche and hardly feel the
boat.
Launching and loading is a breeze but you'll need to do some homework on the "Macgregor Bump"....the
boats sit 6 inches back on the
trailer just because of the way the angles
work when retrieving them....as the back of the boat tips down onto the trailer the front pulls away from the yoke, leaving a gap. If you try to haul like this the tongue is like a wet noodle.
There are many Mac meet ups in the Gulf Islands too - definitely have a big following. I'd suggest that a C will hold it's value assuming you get a good
purchase price but any modifications you do are your own contribution to the boat - I doubt you'd recover more than the initial investment. I've been watching the market since we bought and everything has stayed right around the same buy-in mark just under $10k. That's also assuming any modifications you make to the boat are dome well and "fit" the boat. We saw one ad when we were
buying where the guy had put a
steering setup from a speedboat at the forward wall of the
cockpit well. Perhaps for
steering by foot? Seemed very odd but I'm sure it was incredibly practical. But it's mods like that we steered clear of.
Oh, one other thing - we felt the
pedestal in the
cockpit of the X's and M's was really horribly in the way. Our wide open cockpit is so much nicer.
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