Used 26x or new 26m?

[aya16]

As a Mac owner with more and more time on the boat. Some things I thought were shortcomings on the Mac really turned out to be me and my skills.
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Lets take a few misunderstandings and sort them out.

Tender: is a word thrown out even by me early on. My new name for this is responsive, The Mac will respond very fast to a gust of wind. With stick time you learn to deal with this and the boat will stay very stable and go faster when the main sail and sometimes Genoa is let out a little. Almost all the time in the past my sails were to tight anyway. I found that proper adjustment of the sails to begin with, half the battle is won. One thing thats great about the Mac is its real forgiving and even though you almost touched the water with your mast she didnt get any water in the cockpit or went over for good just came right back up. Scary you bet but
The boat can help when you make a bad choice.

Real sailboat: A lot of people throw into posts. I found that when the Mac
Is set to sail properly in the first place she sails with the best of them.
Of course your not going to be able to keep up with a 35 footer that is sailing your same line but if the guy is not adjusted right you can and even catch or pass. The Mac is a solid 8-mile per hour sailboat in the right conditions. Thats respectable in sailboat terms.


I cant speak for the X I have never sailed one but I have sailed with them and believe me skill of the pilot makes any diff. in performance a non issue against the M. I have seen this.

The Mac is a real sailboat and anyone with an open mind that has heard all the bad things about a Mac from everywhere will get on one with a little
Time fall in love with the boat. Then you start to wonder where all this crap about the Mac comes from. You even get it from owners sometimes on this very board. I think the real serious owners that spout that the Mac
Is a little substandard is really talking about their skills. With all the Macs out there, and theres a lot, full of first time sailors you think you would hear about some pretty nasty things, There are times when things go wrong but the most that happens is a story to tell.

There is a story told by Rolf here about him and his family coming back from Catalina a couple weeks ago, I was down at my boat on shore that day and Ill tell ya I wouldnt want to be in a fifty foot sailboat that day.
Safe stable fun and forgiving is the words I would use to describe the Mac
I wouldnt use inexpensive or cheap.

Sailing is what I love and I have sailed a few other boats besides the Mac
All sail but I think the Mac provides for a fun relaxing time on the water with a few adventures thrown in.

Next time you read about what a compromise the Mac is and how it doesnt Live up to a real sailboat consider the stick time of the author and ask yourself where that would apply to your time with it? And do you think it might be you just need a little more time at the wheel to learn or is the boat a hopeless compromise.
I think I need a little more wheel time and the boat sails just fine..

X M doesnt matter ask yourself how much are you going to use it, and what do you want it for before you shell out any money. Theres a lot of boats over where I keep mine that havent seen the waters edge in years.
Wheather beaten dinged up torn sails just forgotten. So bad off that it would take weeks to get them to usable state for a day sail.

And the bottom line if you bought a boat just from what is written on these pages you already handicaped yourself big time.
My best advice, and thats what you asked for, is think about what you are going to do with it. if youll use it a couple times a year than I dont think your going to get anything out of it. I put my boat in a place so that at any given time I can go over there and put it in the water. Its working out to twice a month sailing and almost every weekend around it. Some may think I have no life, But a day out sailing around thousands of dolfins and
learning to use what god gave us free( wind) takes a lot of time. And its peacefull. all the stress in the world melts away at that moment the grin on my face just comes on by itself its not forced. When Im sailing Im talking to god and im not a church man. And the Mac is a capable mouth piece.

[maddmike]

Sorry, I mean 26X in one and 26M in the other.

[Catigale]

Next time you read about what a compromise the Mac is and how it doesnt Live up to a real sailboat consider the stick time of the author and ask yourself where that would apply to your time with it?

Sage advice indeed. Somewhere out there is a keel boat sailor who pointed me to Macs 10 years ago on a newsgroup, who looked at it this way,

I hope s/he has fair winds and tides for the rest of her/his life.

[Mark Prouty]

What is your experience with people financing a new Mac? What is the range of the number of months they finance for? Average rates?

In 2004, I got a 4.75% 6 year loan from my credit union.

[Tom Spohn]

This is actually quite simple. Go to a dealer that has X's, 2003/2004 M's, and new M's in stock. Sit in the office and read a magazine while your Admiral checks them out. Buy the one she likes. Use Bill's financing suggestion if you don't have the cash.