MacGregorSailors.com

From Practical Sailor:

How do you define "entry-level cruising boat"? How about this: "a boat that lives in the water, on a mooring or in a slip, and that has space on deck and below in which, say, four people can relax, eat, sleep, and travel in protected waters for a few days in decent comfort." In our attempt to review a trio of popular boats fitting this description, we chose the Beneteau 311, Catalina 310, and Hunter 326.

The editors learned in talking with builders and dealers that they know their market, including personality types, and the likely use of the boats.
Hunter owners are more likely to use the boats for dockside entertainment, and reach for a credit card when repairs are to be made.
Beneteau owners seem to fall somewhere in between.

What about Mac owners?

MacGregor owners keep their boats in a nearby slip or bouy, or at home on a trailer.
They do their own maintenance work on their boats either at home or on the water,
modify their boats to suit their missions, and take their boats to lakes and oceans
Hunter, Beneteau and Catalina owners only dream about.
They use all the extra cash they're not spending on their boats to retire early, travel more,
and enjoy their boats more.

Y.B.Normal wrote:MacGregor owners keep their boats in a nearby slip or bouy, or at home on a trailer.
They do their own maintenance work on their boats either at home or on the water,
modify their boats to suit their missions, and take their boats to lakes and oceans
Hunter, Beneteau and Catalina owners only dream about.
They use all the extra cash they're not spending on their boats to retire early, travel more,
and enjoy their boats more.

Can we get an amen

Ray

Amen

Amen

Amen brothers...

I have found it interesting that it seems hunters often get put down, but along my stretch of the ICW I see substantially more snowbirds actually living/traveling in them for extended periods than any other sailboat. Most look new/less than a few years old and 35-40'. All the larger boats seem to have paid crews doing deliveries (who seem to struggle with the concept of timed bridge openings )

Why do Hunters take so much heat on CF? They seem to be second only to MacGregors in lack of respect.

With MacGregors I get it--Water ballast and lack of keels scares the living daylights out of those armchair admirals, but what the hull with Hunters?

Some folks just gotta bitch about something.

I think that those that hang it on Macgregors dont really understand the concept of the boat or its design intentions and are ignorant to the capabilities of the boat .

To the point that many still quote all the usual stuff about them tipping over and killing people, dont worry about the fact that they have made thousands of these and only a couple off accidents have occurred and they have been shown to be user error, so they were not really accidents but rather people that didnt know how to operate the boat correctly, much like any machine if operated incorrectly can be lethal

What I found funny was that on my local Aussie forum TSP ( www.trailersailerplace,com.au ) they are big on all boats being a compromise, however for a while they wouldnt accept the compromise the Mac presented. Im happy to say that most of the "Mac Bashing" has now ceased as the few Mac owners that managed to put up with all the jibes about them and explained what Macs are about.

I also own a JOG (Junior Offshore Group) rated displacement trailer sailer and if the weather is up that would be my preferred boat with its 45% ballast ratio, 320Kg of lead hung under the skeg and 1/2" thick fiberglass, but then again that will only do 6Knts under motor and to make a cuppa I need to be a hunchback.

My personal opinion is those that run the Macs down are just scared of something different, as I told the TSP mob, they need to jump back on their carvel planked hull, with wooden spars and canvas sails on the square rig, which of course none of them own because they have accepted that newer modern design concepts have outdated all of that stuff, just like the Macs outdated their more "Traditional" sail boats they sail

How many traditional sail boats have lost therir keel? When that happens it is ugly! With a Mac no mater how old it is you will never have to worry about that. When a Mac turns over it is almost always "Captan Error". How often do you hear obout a Mac sinking?

Time to have a one off moment of candidness here and just say it,,,,,,,,,,,, before I owned a Mac, I kind of got annoyed by them (although I never bagged them because I knew that one day I may be able to afford one and I’d look silly then ).

You see, where I live, they are probably the most popular trailer sailer on the water and my main (read only) problem with them came when I was puttering along into a tide and headwind under 6hp merc desperately wanting the next 2 hours to be over so I could get back and cut out that screaming little outboard, and all of a sudden a Mac would come screaming past. Some handsome well-dressed suave looking dude sitting comfortably at the helm would raise a hand in a friendly salute and smile as he passed me at two or three times my speed! I’d look at him and a little corner of my brain would whisper in my ear, “look at you standing here with your earplugs in on your 30 year old smelly little boat and look at that James Bond looking character in his flash new boat speeding past. You’re pathetic!! Bet he’s even got a much bigger willy than you!!”

And I would grit my teeth and keep slogging away with the kids crying in the tiny cabin of my Careel 18 and my missus standing in the companionway scrunched over like a hunchback and screaming at me how impossible it is to breastfeed a baby in a rocking sardine tin.
And eventually I’d get to the ramp to see that Mac all packed up in the carpark behind a flash 4x4 and its owner sipping a latte in the café with beautiful young waitresses swooning around him complimenting him on how lovely his boat looked. And I would screw my face up in disgust and think “No way, Iv’ got a REAL sailboat”. And I’d say to that annoying bit of my brain “you’re the fool mate, that lanky wannabe sailer in that space age looking monstrosity that passed us did NOT have a bigger willy!!

Well after a while, my wife refused to come out with me at all, and I wasn’t then at that stage of marriage where that is a plus either…. And my brain would keep whispering in my ear over and over “You’ve got a little willy mate!". After a while II realized that a bigger boat was what I needed but one that I could take a 1000 miles or so away for a 2 week vacation (had to fit on a trailer). And it had to be one that would allow me to ignore wind or tide when I needed to get somewhere fast, and it couldn’t be a sardine tin. There was only one boat that could do it all and I could afford (just). That boat,, is the one that all the big willy handsome suave James Bond types have .

And the rest is history. So what's the moral of the story, there is none, but I know beyond a doubt that a lot of the Mac negativity ( by boaties in Oz anyway), is based on jealousy and that little willy feeling that we men get when something is coming along that is faster than us! They just hate the big motor! I have seen it on their faces now myself and it is fun

And so, if I see any of the known Mac bashers out on the water, I will make a point of shooting over and giving a friendly wave and doing a few donuts around them before shooting off. I know they will be cursing me and making a big fuss when they get home and on the interweby to their real sailor friends, but I also know that that little part of their little brain will be whispering quietly in their ear “ you know that James Bond looking dude in the flash looking fast modern boat has a much bigger willy than you”

As mumma used to say “Jealousy is a curse”.

All that aside, it is a bit sad that Macs are not recognized for what they are. There abilities as an alround protected water cruising boat can't really be beat. Your American sailboat hall of fame recognized one of his other designs but of course none of those sort of organisations will recognize the amazing success of Macgregors power sailer designs in fear of being ridiculed by other "real" sailors.

I can pass for George Cluney with my salt and pepper hair and if you have Vaseline all over your glasses and from a couple of hundred meters, but not Roger Moore and I do keep a couple of pairs of socks down my trousers to enhance my manhood perception

Was thinking of renaming the from MacMac to Seayalata in total disrespect to those macbashers still chugging along at 4Knts if they are lucky and struggling to push with their 6Hp outboards into a 4Knt current and 15Knt headwind in a 23 foot "Traditional" sailboats

That would be moi

Mac26Mpaul wrote:Some handsome well-dressed suave looking dude sitting comfortably at the helm would raise a hand in a friendly salute and smile as he passed me at two or three times my speed! I’d look at him and a little corner of my brain would whisper in my ear, “look at you standing here with your earplugs in on your 30 year old smelly little boat and look at that James Bond looking character in his flash new boat speeding past. You’re pathetic!! Bet he’s even got a much bigger willy than you!!”

You see, where I live, they are probably the most popular trailer sailer on the water and my main (read only) problem with them came when I was puttering along into a tide and headwind under 6hp merc desperately wanting the next 2 hours to be over so I could get back and cut out that screaming little outboard, and all of a sudden a Mac would come screaming past. Some handsome well-dressed suave looking dude sitting comfortably at the helm would raise a hand in a friendly salute and smile as he passed me at two or three times my speed! I’d look at him and a little corner of my brain would whisper in my ear, “look at you standing here with your earplugs in on your 30 year old smelly little boat and look at that James Bond looking character in his flash new boat speeding past. You’re pathetic!! Bet he’s even got a much bigger willy than you!!”

LOL, Too Funny

Sounds like someone is ready to join the darkside with a repower to see what that can really do