New 26S Owner

[danphilgreen]

Hi Everybody,
After years of research and consideration I decided some time ago to pursue a Mac 26S. I learned from owning a near derelict O'day 27 that I needed a boat I could trailer. I learned from several years of owning a 15' Cape Cod Mercury that I needed something with a cabin. And I learned from eight years of living in SW Florida that shallow water capability is a huge asset down here if you don't want to spend all your sailing time running aground or worrying about doing so. The 26S seemed to fit the bill for me with the added feature that trumps all others: very reasonable cost. I sold my little boat, a car, a truck, and a couple of outboard motors gathering dust in my garage and managed to swing a 1990 26S that I found for sale in nearby Cape Coral. The trailer it had been on was totally rusted beyond all hope. The previous owner purchased a used Escort trailer that had been under a Bayliner power boat (I believe) to include with the deal. I ended up completely dis-assembling the galvanized trailer, grinding all parts to bare metal (no small task) and coating with ZRC high zinc "cold galvanizing compound" (paint). The ZRC is said by it's makers and many users to last as long as hot dip galvanizing. I hope they are right. Then it got new hubs, springs, bunks, and lights. I'll post a link to pix of this project in the trailer section for those interested. I brought the boat home a couple of weeks ago and after a week of tinkering launched it and now have it at a friend's dock for a bit. I've had it out sailing several times already and I love it! I chose the boat for it's characteristics, not ever having actually been on one in the water. But now that I have actually sailed it I really like the way it handles and I think it looks great too. I'm just very, very pleased.

I wanted to post here, for the sake of other potential owners who are doing research, regarding the comments of some sailors that say the water-ballasted Macs "are very tender" and the whole thing about them heeling early and all. I was ready to deal with that caveat in order to gain the benefits of light trailering weight and the shallow water capability. Well, the folks complaining about that must have been coming from the perspective of a similar or larger size keel boat. Having done most of my sailing the last several years in a little 15' open swing keel boat, I feel like the 26S is extremely stable! Yes, it does heel right off, but it is not scary in the least and to me it is just not an issue at all. Those guys don't seem to have any idea what "tender" really is! In the little Merc, I had to respond to every little puff or be in danger of going over. So that whole tender thing is completely a matter of perspective. Are you looking down at it from a bigger keel boat or up at it from something smaller? To me the boat feels great and inspires lots of confidence. It does exactly what I need it to do in this environment and the caveats are just not a problem for me. I don't need to get into blue water way off shore - I have little interest in that. What I do need to do and have done several times in the last couple of weeks is to get over a shoal reading less than 2' on my depth sounder! I have been in some passages through the mangroves down here where the power boat guys looked at me like "What are you doing in here with a sailboat?!!" It's very cool and a great relief in this area to be able to go basically anywhere and not worry about getting stuck. And a boat this size that I can trailer easily? All I can say is "Thank you Roger Macgregor! You made a huge amount of fun possible for me!" If you happen to be reading here about these boats as I did for years, don't be put off at all about the "tender" issue. The unique characteristics are wonderful and you won't be disappointed by the looks or the way it sails. Awesome boat!

Dan Philgreen
Fort Myers

[BOAT]

Yes, everything you said is very true and because of your extensive knowledge and experience with boats you are going to be greatly pleased with a water ballasted boat.

People do get exited because regular boats do not quickly go to 15 degrees and then start to slow down the heeling so they get all panicky when they feel MAC quickly accelerate it's heel to 18 degrees and then start to firm up. It takes them a while to get used to it, but really, just like you said - anyone that has sailed trailer-able boats will mostly be accustomed to this. I had an Aquarius 23 that my dad left behind after he passed away and it was the old school lead ballast boat but because it was on a trailer all that ballast was in a skiff keel that was only 6 inches from the bottom of the boat. That made the Aquarius 23 seem like a 'rolley-polley' boat - even more so than the MAC because the A23 had a rounder bottom.

So it's not because the ballast is water that makes the boat tilt - it's because the ballast is so high up in the hull.

Any boat, be it lead ballast or water, will tilt faster if it's carrying it's ballast high up in the hull. The old square riggers were the same way and they never tipped over either. People just get scared when the boats are leaning over.

After so many years in boats you should like that one.

[dlandersson]

Ahhhh.... Grasshopper

The important truth (which you hare clearly been circling) is that you don't have a trailer for the boat, you have the boat as an excuse to mess with the trailer. Hours and hours of non-stop fun with never an end in sight.

Hi Everybody,
After years of research and consideration I decided some time ago to pursue a Mac 26S. I learned from owning a near derelict O'day 27 that I needed a boat I could trailer. I learned from several years of owning a 15' Cape Cod Mercury that I needed something with a cabin. And I learned from eight years of living in SW Florida that shallow water capability is a huge asset down here if you don't want to spend all your sailing time running aground or worrying about doing so. The 26S seemed to fit the bill for me with the added feature that trumps all others: very reasonable cost. I sold my little boat, a car, a truck, and a couple of outboard motors gathering dust in my garage and managed to swing a 1990 26S that I found for sale in nearby Cape Coral. The trailer it had been on was totally rusted beyond all hope. The previous owner purchased a used Escort trailer that had been under a Bayliner power boat (I believe) to include with the deal. I ended up completely dis-assembling the galvanized trailer, grinding all parts to bare metal (no small task) and coating with ZRC high zinc "cold galvanizing compound" (paint). The ZRC is said by it's makers and many users to last as long as hot dip galvanizing. I hope they are right. Then it got new hubs, springs, bunks, and lights. I'll post a link to pix of this project in the trailer section for those interested. I brought the boat home a couple of weeks ago and after a week of tinkering launched it and now have it at a friend's dock for a bit. I've had it out sailing several times already and I love it! I chose the boat for it's characteristics, not ever having actually been on one in the water. But now that I have actually sailed it I really like the way it handles and I think it looks great too. I'm just very, very pleased.

I wanted to post here, for the sake of other potential owners who are doing research, regarding the comments of some sailors that say the water-ballasted Macs "are very tender" and the whole thing about them heeling early and all. I was ready to deal with that caveat in order to gain the benefits of light trailering weight and the shallow water capability. Well, the folks complaining about that must have been coming from the perspective of a similar or larger size keel boat. Having done most of my sailing the last several years in a little 15' open swing keel boat, I feel like the 26S is extremely stable! Yes, it does heel right off, but it is not scary in the least and to me it is just not an issue at all. Those guys don't seem to have any idea what "tender" really is! In the little Merc, I had to respond to every little puff or be in danger of going over. So that whole tender thing is completely a matter of perspective. Are you looking down at it from a bigger keel boat or up at it from something smaller? To me the boat feels great and inspires lots of confidence. It does exactly what I need it to do in this environment and the caveats are just not a problem for me. I don't need to get into blue water way off shore - I have little interest in that. What I do need to do and have done several times in the last couple of weeks is to get over a shoal reading less than 2' on my depth sounder! I have been in some passages through the mangroves down here where the power boat guys looked at me like "What are you doing in here with a sailboat?!!" It's very cool and a great relief in this area to be able to go basically anywhere and not worry about getting stuck. And a boat this size that I can trailer easily? All I can say is "Thank you Roger Macgregor! You made a huge amount of fun possible for me!" If you happen to be reading here about these boats as I did for years, don't be put off at all about the "tender" issue. The unique characteristics are wonderful and you won't be disappointed by the looks or the way it sails. Awesome boat!

Dan Philgreen
Fort Myers

[danphilgreen]

Ha Ha! Yes indeed! The trailer seems to want to suck all the work out of one that it can! As Neil Young said so well, "Rust never sleeps!"