What If? What Sailboat Would You Have If Not A MacGregor?

[GaryMayo]

Lets say Roger Macgregor had flunked out of college and not taken the business course that led to our sailboats, what sailboat have you always had in the corner of your eye?

What might you be sailing now had you chosen another boat builder?

[mastreb]

Either a Hake Yachts Seaward 26RK ($56K) http://www.seawardyachts.com/26rk.html

or a Corsair 28 ($100K) http://www.corsairmarine.com/models/cor ... rt-cruiser

I seriously looked at the Corsair for years. I loved the idea of a fast, trailer-able trimaran. Reasons I didn't go with the Corsair:

(1) Did I mention the 100K?
(2) Factory had shut down in Chula Vista (hour from my house) and re-opened in Vietnam. No thanks.
(3) I crewed on one and I realized the cabin was fine for two but not appropriate for my family. It was fast as hull though, we passed every displacement sailor on the water that day. 14 knots was no problem in a 15 knot wind. Amazing sail, if you have a chance to do it some time, do it.

Then I looked seriously at the Hake. It's hands down a better sailboat than the Mac (more like the 26S or D, it's a pure sailboat). The reasons I didn't go with the Hake are:

(1) I live in San Diego. Hake Factory is in Florida, and I would have lost $6K in shipping alone. I did have a deal worked out where they would ship a boat to the L.A. boat show, and I'd take possession afterwards to eliminate the shipping costs. Contrast that to the MacGregor factory where I picked up the boat from the factory one afternoon on my way home from work. It's a big difference for me--I don't want to be that far from parts and spares.
(2) Failsafety: The Hake has an electrically winched 600 lb. keel with a bulb. What happens when there's no power and you have to get that keel up?
(3) Trailerability: it's enough of a pain getting a Mac onto the trailer. Add anther 18 inches out of the water for the keel bulb (plus what happens if you "miss") and you you've got a lot more hassle it would seem to me. Also it's a much heavier 6000lb. tow.

I'd known about the Mac the entire time and had dismissed it out of hand years earlier because I didn't care about the powerboat aspect and didn't want any of the powering trade-offs--I wanted a "no compromise" sailboat that I could trailer. To be frank I saw it as kind of a cheap gimmick.

I didn't come back around to it until I realized that there simply wasn't another boat on the market that met all of my criteria, and if I wanted a boat I was going to have to look seriously at the Mac. Why did it meet all of my criteria? Precisely because it is a "compromise boat" that it can meet all of my often conflicting requirements.

My concerns with the Mac were the following:

(1) I didn't trust water ballast. I still get a knot in my stomach when we heel over 45 even though I "know" we'll upright. I never got that knot once on my keel-boat, because the quality of knowing was a lot stronger. I'm also still worried that I'll one-day forget to ballast.

(2) I didn't care about or even want the tradeoffs related to power boating. This one I just gave up on--I almost ordered the boat no-motor with the intent of putting a Mercury 9.9 on the back. Only reason I didn't was the steering wouldn't be integrated and I didn't want to do the work myself, so I just capitulated to the ETEC-60. Then I couldn't wipe the grin off my face after the first time I pushed the throttle wide-open on the big bay.

(3) The boat was way too inexpensive. I knew that a boat with quality fit and finish of the same spec and with good hardware would be in the 50K range.

But I have to say I've gradually come around to Roger's theory of "Enough to get the job done, no more, and let the owner upgrade what he cares about". It's actually more optimal from an engineering and sales perspective. People who trash the Mac on quality of fittings (we all do it) need to upgrade a Mac to the same standard of hardware as any other boat they care to compare it to and then see what the price-tag is. Likely the Mac is still thousands cheaper, and now equal. There's not a damned thing wrong with my hull, and everything else is upgradable--to what I want, not what the factory chose. I don't feel bad at all upgrading hardware on the Mac, I feel it's part of the $25K I didn't spend when I bought the boat before I knew what I wanted. I've spent about $4K on upgrades that would have come with a better boat, so I figure I've still got $20K to go before I'm even with what the Hake would have cost me.

So I started lurking on forums, got to this one, and it won me over in a few weeks. Having an active community is exceptionally important to using any boat well. The Hake and Corsairs don't sell enough boats to have active communities of their own. You get generic advice from frankly a lot of blowhards who seem to have religious devotion to their untested ideals. For example you'll hear over and over two refrains about Macs on "various other fora": They're unsafe because of the water ballast (weird how most new designs are going water ballasted) and they're too small and unsafe to do an oceanic crossing. How many of the blowhards saying that have ever done a transocean in their 30yo 26 sloops? Exactly zero. The smallest boat I've ever heard of doing a transatlantic unattended is 27 feet. The size alone tells you it's not a transoceanic boat, and 99.99% of all sailors will never attempt a transoceanic sail. Why that's considered some kind of disadvantage unique to the Mac on other forums is completely beyond me.

On this forum, you get straight up answers about your model of boat you own from numerous people who've been there and done that. It's a qualitative and quantitative difference that should not be undervalued.

Are there things I'd change about my Mac? Sure. But rather than complain about something that isn't 100% optimal for my purpose, I'm just going to change the boat to be optimal for my purpose--And I get to have the fun of doing that. As I said, there ain't nothing wrong with the hull.

[GaryMayo]

I am an artist. I scratch out a living, finding something in my eye, and working with that in my hands.

When I look at sailboats, I do so with the hands and eyes of an artist. When we got married in 1983, I looked at Macs. Could not afford one, but it was that name that caught my eye.

Now, 28 years later, I own the sailboat I literally lusted after o so many years ago.

She is not new, and shows some strain in her time travels, but she is mine, and we are loving what she is doing for our lives. Best summer I can remember in years.

I feel I want to outfit this one to sail hard and fast, no frills, and find us a station wagon to get comfortable in.

[Catigale]

Mastreb...your post caught the essence of the market position of the Mac perfectly.

25k buys a lot of upgrades, and this Board can guide where you want to go on the mod front..

[tomchitecture]

Catalina 250 wing keel.

[Billy]

If not MacGregor, I would have purchased the first powersailer I ever knew about--1983 Lancer 27 that supported up to 150 hp. No, Roger, did not build the first powersailer. I've looked at sailboats a long time and I've always wanted it both ways.
(Even considered dropping a small block V8 inside a Mac 26 S. And I have a few crazier ideas I may produce one day.)

[mastreb]

Maarten...your post caught the essence of the market position of the Mac perfectly.

25k buys a lot of upgrades, and this Board can guide where you want to go on the mod front..

I like the name "Maarten"--perhaps I'll change my name to it

Matt

[Ixneigh]

I would have built my own.

Ixneigh

[mastreb]

If not MacGregor, I would have purchased the first powersailer I ever knew about--1983 Lancer 27 that supported up to 150 hp. No, Roger, did not build the first powersailer.

Nice looking boat! Trailerable?

[gyroplanes]

I really like my , but I have a bad case of bigger boat itis. There are 2 Catalina 30's on my dock. The more I look at them, the more I like them. It is a keel boat and beamy at 10'-11".

Any opinions on the Catalina 30 ?

[vkmaynard]

Definitely would like to keep it simple with a little more added comfort

[Billy]

If not MacGregor, I would have purchased the first powersailer I ever knew about--1983 Lancer 27 that supported up to 150 hp. No, Roger, did not build the first powersailer.

Nice looking boat! Trailerable?

I don't think it was designed to be trailerable like a Mac. Drafted 4.3' with fixed keel. Boat sat high on a trailer and weighed over 4000lbs. It's top speed under power was about 16 kts. They also made a 29 foot version. The boat was not cheap.

MacGregor really has it beat with trailerability, weight and price.

[Sumner]

..Any opinions on the Catalina 30 ?

Our second choice behind the Endeavour we bought was either a Cat 30 or 34 and probably would of been the 34. Do some googling on them. If you went with the 30 I'd recommend I think an '89 or later to avoid some of the keel problems, the 'smile', that could of happened on the earlier ones.

You are right the 30 has a lot of room inside with the wide beam and the 34 probably has maybe more room inside than our 37 Endeavour due to yet even a wider beam. I wrote down why we went with the Endeavour over either of those here (a ways down the page)....

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... index.html

I think we would of been happy with either of the Catalina's and if you are lake or occasional coastal sailing I think they would be a better choice vs. what we bought. I'd rate the Endeavour as being equivalent to our Suburban and the Catalina's more like a Camaro.

One nice thing about them is that there are a lot out there that are for sale, so you can get a little more picky vs. finding another boat that might be just as good, but not so many to choose from. I like the simple sail plan on the Endeavour and the Catalina's that would be fairly easy to single-hand if needed.

Good luck,

Sum

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Our MacGregor S Pages

Mac-Venture Links

[pokerrick1]

If not for the Mac I probably would NEVER have bought a sailboat; but bought another powerboat instead.

I would not have a sailboat on Lake Mead - - - but if I were still in Southern California I probably would have obtained something like a 42' Benetau with in mast sails. That would be my floating Motel and party boat and I would keep and sail the every day (mostly alone - - leave me alone when I'm sailing so I can get some peace and quiet)

Rick

[Catigale]

Ditto Rick for me.

Matt - sorry about that,,,I Pad autocorrection FAIL