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

[Lost Horizons]

Originally Posted by JC Reefer

Huh?!? How does lifting the keel help during a storm? Is all the ballast in the boat and none in the keel?

Correct. Water ballast is in the double bottom tank. The centerboard is constructed like a rudder. Hollow fiberglass.

[DreadPirateRob]

There's a right sailor for most boats... and a right boat for most sailors.

If you're looking at the Mac 26 because you will REALLY use it's unique features - you plan to trailer a lot, plan to motor regularly, plan to spend time in the well laid out cabin, etc... then get it, and deal with the fact that it's not the BEST boat for heavy seas.

The same way that another sailor who plans to REALLY use the advantages of a heavy keelboat has to deal with the fact that they aren't motoring at 20 knots, don't have the same cabin layout, etc.

If you do go cruising in the 26... all of the mocking can be repaid that one day of your life that you're in a crowded shallow anchorage and a tsunami warning is sounded. Everybody else under 30 feet is sure going to wish they had your flat bottom and 50 horse engine that day!

[DreadPirateRob]

And just to tack on one more thought to what I said about choosing a boat with the features you'll actually use - especially when buying used old boats that will probably hold their value mostly - buy the boat you need this year. It's so easy to play the "Well, maybe someday I'll..." game and talk yourself into the wrong boat.

"Maybe one day I'll trailer to another lake... so I should get a boat that's going to feel too small every day I use it... and I'll probably never even get around to trailering."

"Maybe one day I'll river cruise with it... so I should spend twice as much money on the diesel version instead of the outboard..." when you will never do that because most rivers are boring and full of barges!

"Maybe one day I'll take 12 people out on it! I should get the big one, even though I can't name 11 people I actually like enough to want to be stuck in the middle of the lake with for two hours..."

If you talk to the old timers, they tend to have a long list of boats they've owned. "Oh, I had the 27, then I wanted to trailer so I got the 22, but I missed the 27 so I bought it back from the guy I sold it to, and now that I bought the 34, I have the 27 up on the hard and next spring I'm going to set it up for racing...if I don't buy that 25 that Bob's trying to sell..." Because they've learned that somebody will always be wanting to switch boats... so sail what you've got and look for what you want when your needs or interests change.

[Fbfisher]

Yes. Read this recent Practical Sailor revisit of this entry level trailerable, with plenty of comments from owners:

https://www.practical-sailor.com/rev...26-1208-1.html

Cheers

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by Fbfisher

Yes. Read this recent Practical Sailor revisit of this entry level trailerable, with plenty of comments from owners:

https://www.practical-sailor.com/rev...26-1208-1.html

Seems we have to keep saying this, but the OP who started this thread was referring to the "powersailor" Macgregors - the 26X and 26M, not it's sailing predecessors. So this link is actually irrelevant to the OP's question. But anyway...

I felt that this report was pretty evenhanded. It was honest about economies and deficiencies, but still underscored that the boats represented good value and were satisfactory to the majority of their owners.

The majority of boaters are constantly tinkering with their boats, and many of the noted deficiences are simple fixes or upgrades, so they are not fatal issues. And the majority of these sailing Mac owners are daysailors, weekend cruisers, or thrifty longer-distance coastal & lake cruisers, so the boat's attributes are mostly desirable.

I helped my friends to survey and buy a sailing Mac 26 (26S, I believe). I've been out on it. It's fine. You get decent sailing (especially in light summer air), OK accommodation, and trailerable cruising on a 26' boat, for not big bucks. Having said that, used Macs seem to command a pretty steady price in the resale market. If you keep it maintained, it seems that you can buy one used, own it for a few years, then sell it for about what you paid.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by DreadPirateRob

If you do go cruising in the 26... all of the mocking can be repaid that one day of your life that you're in a crowded shallow anchorage and a tsunami warning is sounded. Everybody else under 30 feet is sure going to wish they had your flat bottom and 50 horse engine that day!

and how often does this happen? Once or twice a week? BUT,
I can just see that sales pitch might work in the showroom though!

[DreadPirateRob]

Originally Posted by Don C L

and how often does this happen? Once or twice a week? BUT,
I can just see that sales pitch might work in the showroom though!

I admitted it might only happen once in your life! :P

I do NOT own a Mac 26... but that's the only circumstance I can imagine being jealous of one of their owners!

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by DreadPirateRob

If you do go cruising in the 26... all of the mocking can be repaid that one day of your life that you're in a crowded shallow anchorage with lots of folk sitting on the beach wishing they had a boat

I think this reads better.

Pete

[Fbfisher]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

Seems we have to keep saying this, but the OP who started this thread was referring to the "powersailor" Macgregors - the 26X and 26M, not it's sailing predecessors. So this link is actually irrelevant to the OP's question. But anyway...

I felt that this report was pretty evenhanded. It was honest about economies and deficiencies, but still underscored that the boats represented good value and were satisfactory to the majority of their owners.

The majority of boaters are constantly tinkering with their boats, and many of the noted deficiences are simple fixes or upgrades, so they are not fatal issues. And the majority of these sailing Mac owners are daysailors, weekend cruisers, or thrifty longer-distance coastal & lake cruisers, so the boat's attributes are mostly desirable.

I helped my friends to survey and buy a sailing Mac 26 (26S, I believe). I've been out on it. It's fine. You get decent sailing (especially in light summer air), OK accommodation, and trailerable cruising on a 26' boat, for not big bucks. Having said that, used Macs seem to command a pretty steady price in the resale market. If you keep it maintained, it seems that you can buy one used, own it for a few years, then sell it for about what you paid.

The OP asked in the title of the thread, “Is the 26 as bad as everyone says...” The answer from the PS reviews and owner comments is a resounding “yes.” There are other “yes” answers to be found, like, are there owners who enjoy them in spite of their shortcomings? Yes. Do owners spend time modifying them to improve their function? Yes. Does the build quality and workmanship reflect the very inexpensive price? Yes. Is it a cheap way to acquire a trailerable sailboat? Yes.

Informed choices are the best kind.

Cheers!

[dxbpilot]

Hi,

I've got a Macgregor 26M, its my first boat. Already had countless days of fun with friends and family on her. Bit hard to park at times.

Was literally 1/6th of the price of a similar sized proper sailing boat. And has made life easy getting it out of the water as you don't have to worry about tides etc. Can just chuck it on the trailer for any maintenance.

Wouldn't take her blue water cruising but as a coastal day boat its been plenty of fun.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by Fbfisher

The OP asked in the title of the thread, “Is the 26 as bad as everyone says...” The answer from the PS reviews and owner comments is a resounding “yes.” There are other “yes” answers to be found, like, are there owners who enjoy them in spite of their shortcomings? Yes. Do owners spend time modifying them to improve their function? Yes. Does the build quality and workmanship reflect the very inexpensive price? Yes. Is it a cheap way to acquire a trailerable sailboat? Yes.

If you read the OP, he was referring to the powersailor Macs. The PS article was about the versions prior to those. So it's kind of irrelevant, sorry.

But it was still very interesting, anyway.

Have you been on either the powersailor or sailing Macs? I have. I wouldn't myself own the powersailor - too many compromises for me, but the sailing Macs are not horrible or unsafe.

And they're not cheap, if you've ever priced them on the used market.

[sgrimm]

I've owned a MacGregor 26x for three years and now have a CS34 for two.

The MacGregor was a nice flexible day sailor that provides access to a lot of areas that our CS can't easily get to. For example, our CS can't do 100kph to a new destination. Our MacGregor could (on the trailer ��). We could be in Georgian Bay one weekend and then the Thousand Islands the next.

The MacGregor could sneak into shallow anchorages and could even be beached.

We had her out in rough, gusty weather and she handled it with ease. Did get tossed more than our CS but always felt safe.

We even took our MacGregor through some locks of the Trent. The mast could be brought down within minutes to pass under a low bridge.

Lots of flexibility and I miss it.

But we love our CS34 now. She's slower under motor, faster under sail, more solid, stable and comfortable for longer cruises.

First time I turned the wheel on a keel boat I realized what all the salty sailors here are talking about. A MacGregor tries to be a sailboat but it just doesn't handle the same.

I suggest you try both types of boats. And then go with your heart and ignore what others say, and make it your boat.



Shane
'90 CS34
FoghornLullaby.com

[goingplaces]

Some years ago I cruised Micronesia and in Phonpei I came across a Japanese sailor on a McGregor 26. He thought it was a great little boat. He sailed it down from Nagoya and was on his way to Cape Horn...


I guess it all depends on you budget and how desperate you are for some adventure.

[mjgill1]

Originally Posted by DanielCZ

I would really like to get some first hand experience here, did some one owned, or still owns a Mac 26?

We owned one. It was a 2012 26M. Picked it up in NJ for 18K, used it for two seasons, added some nice goodies to it and sold it for 25K. I'll do my best here to lay out the pro's and con's as I remember them.
Pros:

• Light weight
• easy to rig and launch (45 minutes from arrival to in the water)
• surprising amount of storage and interior room for a 26 we had 4 aboard. 2 adults, 2 kids
• twice as fast under power
• surprisingly stiff for it being so lightly built.
• Actually sailed well once we switched to a new 100% jib and flat top main from Blue Water Yachts out of Seattle who is probably the biggest dealer of parts and accessories for the Mac. Before the sail switch, it sailed like poop.
• Believe it or not that boat pointed pretty well. It definitely turned on a dime when you had the dagger board all the way down.
• The aft berth is huge. My oldest and me slept back there with a 70 quart DC fridge from ARB. Best on the market imo.
• Once we switched to a C head, all was well in that department.
• Everything is cheap. I got both sails for like 1K LOL! You can accessorize based on wants and parts are inexpensive.

Now for the Cons:

• Engineered to MINIMUM standards. Very thin and flexible everywhere
• Tender. She'll heel to 15 in an instant. The water ballast slows down the heeling considerably after 20. Again, new sails really made it a different boat. the 135 is WAY too much for it and with old sails it just gets knocked down at every puff. It really sucked until the new sails.
• The V berth is too short. If it was a 28' it would have been just ok
• No systems at all. An engine, battery and binnacle
• steering only goes so far one way and all the way the other. design error
• of course getting in and out of any berth is an exercise in contortion
• Low grade components. The winches were plastic.
• Oxidation. If you wax it it will be powder in a week. You have to use something like newglass2 to keep it looking nice.

For us coming from the power boat world it was an option to see if we would like sailing and it worked out well. We used it a couple of seasons, sold it and bought a Seaward 32RK. Now after attending Annapolis last Oct. I want an Outbound 46. Now there's a real blue water boat!!!

Good luck!

[Jim Cate]

I've followed this thread with sorta morbid interest, but no experience. Then last week I happened to see two of them moored in a marina where I could examine them externally.

Lots of cost cutting obvious,but the really scary thing was that the standing rigging was thinner than that on the Catalina 22 that I had years ago, and was 1x19 wrapped around standard thimbles and Nico pressed. NOT favorably impressed for use beyond protected waters.

Despite the rave reviews of their sailing and seaworthness prowess, I for one would not sail offshore in one.

Jim