Hi Im Roger Macgregor (NOT)

[aya16]

Can anyone think of how the Mac should be improved at the factory?



I was thinking wider boat maybe a foot,
stronger transom for 90 hp engine
double axle galv. trailer.


any other thoughts?

No Im not Roger.............

[Richard O'Brien]

I've said it elsewhere, but how about a more accommodating binnacle for controls, and dare i say it among X owners? i wish there were more of a swim step, or an area wide enough to build one on the M.

[Gerald Gordon]

I would like to see some quality and care in the production of this boat. Many things are cheesy. Mac with cheese. In the head, for example, not enough room for the head and not enough room for the feet. But right behind the head is plenty of room that is very hard to get to. Poor design.

I would say that Macgregor yachts are suffering from a lack of imagination, Roger. You blew it with the center board. You blew it with the swim deck--don't have. You blew it with the head/shower. Poor design, poor design and poor design. Trailer!!! not only too short but a rust bucket!!! I would think the Mac 65 is designed just as poorly--I don't know, I have not seen one. But, fish of a feather build boats together.

I'm not talking about money, Roger. Still, Roger, I really like my 99X--also known as THE K-MART Boat. Get one while the blue light is flashing!

[Catigale]

Wider by two inches (on my ) puts you into permit trailering for most states which sucks - someone just posted the tribulations of permitted trailering a few days ago...

On quality - would you pay $10k more for better fittings etc? Quality costs - I think the business model of keeping the price low and letting people upgrade as they see fit is the winner.

Agree with the space issues - but we do have the effective accomodations of a 32 foot boat on a 26 foot footprint.

Lack of imagination Gerry?? I dont see anyone else pulling off this concept as successfully so I think you have to give credit for that!!

[Mark Prouty]

TRAILER, TRAILER, TRAILER!!!

Cheapest build I've ever seen.

[Sloop John B]

My $1,000 trailer is good for the seven mile haul down to the salt water marina. I expect it to disintegrate sooner than I expect.

That's why we mosey around the lot and say, "Hey, nice trailer. What did that run you?"

Looks like it's going to be about 3 or 4 grand to get something substantial.

When we bought our boats, we weren't thinking of trailer replacement. We focused on the bottom line cost. That's why we bought them. Jack in the price of what we have spent on upgrades since then, and we may have hesitated in making the plunge.

[BK]

Sloop John, Baha Trailers here in Socal will sell a double axel galy trailer for the Mac for $2500. Couple more years and I will be getting the single axel, 15' tire, galvanized.

[Sloop John B]

BK, thanks for the encouragement. I'm always looking at the real dandies. Has anyone priced Champion out of Slidel, Louisiana, for something we'd be satisfied with?

Id like to remain at 14" on the tires for staying low getting into the water. However, that size may keep the weight ability marginal.

[Don B]

I would like to see better steerage control coming into docks, slips, trailer and so on. Crosswinds can be a challenge with the Mac with so much free board above the water line.

I know there are suggestions to get around this but the Mac 99 X just does not respond at slow speeds in crosswinds like other boats I have been involved with.

Not sure about other water ballast boats they may have the same concern.

-Don B

[nemo]

Overall I'm happy with the boat so far, although the things that made me think more than once when I was buying it...

I would like to see a bit larger cockpit as I have a several kids and spend most of the time day sailing. I do have the stern seats which help a lot.

I wish the ladder into the cabin was removeable to give better access to the rear berth. I like the location of the sliding galley, but it does get in the way.

Better access out the back for swimming would be high on my list, but that's partially my fault as I have a big 70hp 4-stroke in the way.

I was willing to pay extra for all the goodies on the BWY supercruiser package - it was still much less than other boats - the Mac is a great value for the price.

[DavidB]

My 1988 Mac 26D is great. The wife and I use ours for racing and day sailing so it fits our needs. We have been thinking on getting a bigger boat and for some reason I find it hard to sell my mac to me it's just a good all around boat.

[Chip Hindes]

One of these threads shows up almost like clockwork about every six months. They are an interesting semiannual exercise, but ultimately somewhat pointless. At the risk of pi$$ off a whole bunch of people, again, I have to say some people still don't seem to grasp the concept of this boat.

It's a compromise, designed to appeal to the largest number of potential buyers at the lowest possible cost. Roger needs to be able to run these things off like Xerox copies, or the cost will put them out of reach for many and/or he'll be competing directly with Hunter et al.

Don't get me wrong. The boat is certainly not perfect. The perfect race winning fifty footer, shoal draft deep keel, chrome plated tilt trailer you can pull with your Yugo and no need for permits, full professional kitchen and head with shower and hot tub, sleeps a crew of ten but is easily singlehanded, accomodating twin supercharged 275s which get 32mpg at 55 mph, is still a year or two off. It's probably on Roger's drawing board even as we speak.

However, since you already bought the existing boat, what exactly is it that Roger did wrong? It appears he did it enough right for you to buy the boat, and that's exactly what he was shooting for. Don't like certain aspects of the boat? Fine. Fix or upgrade them yourself. Really hate the boat? Too bad, unload it and buy some other $19K brand which more closely fits what you want. But in either case it's wrong to ask the rest of the potential buyers to pay for something you want, but they don't.

[Don B]

Chip,

Roger certainly gets his Puffery correct. There are things I learned about this boat after buying it that were surprises. I may have picked up on these concerns from reading the boards. But nothing beats owning a boat to find out its good points or bad points.

I guess compromise is just that compromise.

I remember Lee Ia Cocca saying "Yes he could make the Dodge safe under most all conditions but it would than weigh a lot more and cost a lot more." - Not an exact quote by the way.

Compromise is true of all boats no matter who the manufacturer is.

-Don B

[Don B]

I got thinking what will be the next 26, we have had the X and the M so maybe the next 26 should be the 26L. This will track with the internet app which is "XML" which is quoted as:

"XML shall support a wide variety of applications. XML should be beneficial to a wide variety of diverse applications: authoring, browsing, content analysis, etc. Although the initial focus is on serving structured documents over the web, it is not meant to narrowly define XML. "

And isn't that what we all want out of our 26's ? A boat that will fit a wide variety of applications ??

Sorry !! I have had too much Java this morning !!!

-Don B

[Catigale]

Too much Java script evidently...