Flipping a Macgregor

[sailboatmike]

I was doing some searching last night on the net and came upon a thread started way back in 2002 on the YBW forum about Macs and how safe are they.

Well I can honestly say I have never read such a lot of uninformed hocus pokus, hearsay, rumor and just plain out and out lies written about how unsafe the Mac X is.

It was funny because the people that had actually sailed one said they were a good stable boat, HOWEVER all the idiots who had never sailed one but their mate told them or they saw once on a forum ran them down as being rubbish.

One bloke even said he wouldnt go out on a pond in one they are that unsafe, These guys make me laugh my sox off, apparently one guy said he could tell just by looking at a boat that it would capsize in anything more than a gentle breeze.

I put forward that the 26X and M rangne could be the safest boats ever built, with around 10,000 built and being sold to sailors of all abilities from rank beginner to experienced sailor and in all conditions from lake to atlantic ocean there has never been a fatality the one could attribute to the unseaworthiness of the boat only the stupidity of the skipper by not following the manufacturers instructions.

Show me one other boat that has been built that many of that can make that claim

[NiceAft]

I was doing some searching last night on the net and came upon a thread started way back in 2002 on the YBW forum about Macs and how safe are they.

Well I can honestly say I have never read such a lot of uninformed hocus pokus, hearsay, rumor and just plain out and out lies written about how unsafe the Mac X is.

It was funny because the people that had actually sailed one said they were a good stable boat, HOWEVER all the idiots who had never sailed one but their mate told them or they saw once on a forum ran them down as being rubbish.

One bloke even said he wouldnt go out on a pond in one they are that unsafe, These guys make me laugh my sox off, apparently one guy said he could tell just by looking at a boat that it would capsize in anything more than a gentle breeze.

I put forward that the 26X and M rangne could be the safest boats ever built, with around 10,000 built and being sold to sailors of all abilities from rank beginner to experienced sailor and in all conditions from lake to atlantic ocean there has never been a fatality the one could attribute to the unseaworthiness of the boat only the stupidity of the skipper by not following the manufacturers instructions.

Show me one other boat that has been built that many of that can make that claim

Mike,
I had to smile when I read your post.

Back in 2004, the Admiral and I decided to get a bigger boat. Since 1979, we were sailing a 14' Phantom, and finally were taking the plunge for bigger.

I had extensively researched the Internet, and became intrigued with the Mac. When I explored farther, I kept finding all sorts of negative comments. I started to believe I had an interest in the wrong boat. I then realized that all of the bad talk was from people who had never been on a Mac. All of the praise was coming from those who owned a Mac. It did not take much thought for me to start looking for a dealer. We purchased our 2005 at the 2004 Annapolis Boat Show. We have never looked back.

Ray

[bobbob]

The general complaint related to Mac safety seems to be that they are unsafe if you try to sail them without the water ballast full, and they should be more idiot proof. To me this statement is laughable - they are very few vehicles that can be safely operated without knowing how!!!

[Ixneigh]

Ahhh, so only the people who are too stupid to operate a Mac think they are unsafe

[sailboatmike]

So going by this we learn a few things.

People that own and operate Macs safely have a higher IQ than your average mug sailor who cant read and comprehend instructions

People that own Macs have a higher IQ because they dont just read some rubbish on the internet or listen what a mate of a mate told them, they have a high enough IQ to do research,

People that own Macs dont listen to rumour and gossip, they form their own opinions based on several trusted sources of information.

People that own Macs have the ability to change their style in order to get the best out of a boat rather than just blunder on and blame the boat

So the only possible conclusion is , not only do Mac owners have the best boats in the world, they are the smartest sailors

[cptron]

So going by this we learn a few things.

People that own and operate Macs safely have a higher IQ than your average mug sailor who cant read and comprehend instructions

People that own Macs have a higher IQ because they dont just read some rubbish on the internet or listen what a mate of a mate told them, they have a high enough IQ to do research,

People that own Macs dont listen to rumour and gossip, they form their own opinions based on several trusted sources of information.

People that own Macs have the ability to change their style in order to get the best out of a boat rather than just blunder on and blame the boat

So the only possible conclusion is , not only do Mac owners have the best boats in the world, they are the smartest sailors

LMAO , that is the best post I have ever read. You need to post this on those mac hating sites

[Catigale]

It was a sad day on SailingAnarchy when Bob Perry posted a respectful post of the Mac and Rogers' accomplishments

[LoHo]

Sooo...I guess that means that white-hull Mac owners are smarter than blue-hull Mac owners?

[BOAT]

There is really only one thing that the SA people had on the MAC that was plausible because it was still experimental - they all said the boat was too lightly built and too thin.

That was the same main complaint I got from the established keel boat sailors I knew still sailing in the 80's

I tried to explain to these mental giants 20 ago that the future of sailboats was going to be LIGHT and THIN! I said, "boats are too heavy!" that's why I stopped sailing in the first place! I was sick and tired of trying to spank these 4 and 5 thousand pound slugs to go over 4 knots! I got so tired of the ancient design of the "modern" sailboat that I gave up back in the 80's.

Now? Gee whiz - they have carbon fiber boats and new aluminum honeycombs and exotic epoxies and all kinds of stuff that makes the experience so much better than before and now you can actually get up to a cruising speed in a trailer boat that can actually take you places! I was tired of spending 7 to 8 hours just to get to Catalina - the old "NOT-THIN trailer boats were just too damn slow to be of any use. Then in the 90's even the "traditional" boat builders were admitting that the only reason they were making their boats so thick was because they had no history on what would happen if they made the hull thin!

Now we have over 20 years of data that tells us the thin hulls are safe and they are not going to crack open any easier than the thick hulls. The data is getting stronger every day.

On that issue all we can do is wait to see if the SA guys are right, but my bet is that they are wrong. (We still need another 20 years to see the conditions of the boats in the year 2040 so we can compare).

[sailboatmike]

I wonder if these "Thin Hull" people realize that many ships that are over 1000 feet long are made out of 1/2 inch steel, yes 12mm of steel is all the hull thickness is.

That really gets you thinking

[kadet]

I wonder if these "Thin Hull" people realize that many ships that are over 1000 feet long are made out of 1/2 inch steel, yes 12mm of steel is all the hull thickness is.

That really gets you thinking

Or traditional ocean cruising yachts like Ganleys and Van De Stadts which are made of 3 and 4 mm steel When plastic glass composites were first introduced the boat builders did not know how to use them so thick must be safe. We now know that is not necessary. Also the Keelers need to compare apples with apples and not apples with oranges. The Mac is a 26" trailer sailor not a 34" keeler so when compared to the majority plywood monstrosities that existed in the trailer sailer market when they were first introduced there was no contest .

[BOAT]

I wonder if these "Thin Hull" people realize that many ships that are over 1000 feet long are made out of 1/2 inch steel, yes 12mm of steel is all the hull thickness is.

That really gets you thinking

Or traditional ocean cruising yachts like Ganleys and Van De Stadts which are made of 3 and 4 mm steel When plastic glass composites were first introduced the boat builders did not know how to use them so thick must be safe. We now know that is not necessary. Also the Keelers need to compare apples with apples and not apples with oranges. The Mac is a 26" trailer sailor not a 34" keeler so when compared to the majority plywood monstrosities that existed in the trailer sailer market when they were first introduced there was no contest .

Yeah! This was the whole concept that still eludes these mental giants today! These people who are still stuck because they can't understand why a rig has no chicken head and no back stay and the rigging is so light and they just don't understand that the reason THEIR boat has a masthead block and huge pulley blocks and thick stays with foot wide chain plates is because THEIR rigging needs to take the force of trying to pull a 7000 pound slug through the water! THAT is why the mast and the rigging breaks first on a traditional boat! Because the rigging on a traditional keel boat - as heavy as it is - is still TOO LIGHT for the job!

On the MAC, a boat that weighs a little over 2800 pounds the rigging that comes with the boat is strong enough to lift the entire boat out of the water!!! THAT is WHY the lighter boat is better! It does not destroy it's own rigging with sheer weight and force! It's an entirely different concept that only the racing crowd seems to understand.

The old fashioned chopper gun boats of the 70 and 80's that used 1/2 inch thick fiberglass hulls are NOT the superior build. That was a CHEAPER build! A superior build is a woven matt with layers going in different directions with all possible air squeezed out of each layer - THAT is the strongest and lightest way to build a resin boat. It's a very labor intensive but far superior.

[Ixneigh]

So let's just call the boats high tech mini ocean racers. Those are expected to be light , and when parts fall off, nobody says any thing

[Baha]

It's funny...being in the UK, berth around some seriously nice boats, and almost everyone is curious and friendly about my . I get quite a few questions and often end with a "nice little sailboat" kind of comment. Maybe the Brits are more open-minded??

[Highlander]

try flippin this lol
http://vid235.photobucket.com/albums/ee ... 0_4561.mp4

or even this !!
http://vid844.photobucket.com/albums/ab ... 010128.mp4

or this
http://vid844.photobucket.com/albums/ab ... 0_2494.mp4

J