Mac 26 "Blam" Thread

[mackid068]

I spent 20+ years in the military in support of it. But that also includes the right to make oneself look immature.

Sir-

Thank you, I really do respect that. No joke. But I do make myself look like a *****...often. However, I do feel that motorsailors compromise both sailing and motoring. It's a sailboat or a motorboat, in my opinion. It's almost impossible to do a decent job combining them without destroying either the sailing or motoring ability of the vessel. I find the Mac26 to be more of a power vessel than a sailing vessel, and not much of the former. That's just me.

[TheFarSide]

Skippy, Frank has a way of bringing out the worst in the best of people, and I can understand the resentment toward the X due to his outlandish claims for it. His "gybing" centerboard was thoroughly debunked on the MacGregor Sailors forum.

The M does replace some of its water ballast area with solid ballast, and has a total of 50 pounds more. I'd be interested in where you got the info on lead. IIRC, someone visiting the factory said it looked like a big blob of resin, but there was some debate about the heat during curing.

At an rate, there's 50 lbs more ballast and the center of it is lower by whatever 15° vs 8° deadrise is over roughly 8' beam. Or I guess you could use the 3" deeper draft, but that spec is really unballasted.

However, the M also has about a 2' higher mast, sitting on a slightly higher cabin, and taller mainsail (same foot dimension) for a higher center of effort overall as well as a little greater weight aloft. So I'm not sure they'd be a whole lotta difference in heel. To date, there's been shown no clear advantage of the M over the X when it comes to speed (except on the MacGregor website, of course), and several MS members have owned both.

I've been on both, don't see a difference, and certainly would call neither "sturdy." LOL! Not sure what you mean by the M being sturdier. There are a few Xs which have held up to almost 10 years of regular family use.

It was a MS forum member named Frank C who coined the phrase, "Winnebago with sails" for the MacGregors. While a few members prefer the M for the greater sail area, rotating mast, and traveler, and some just want to buy new, others are more interested in the recreational vehicle properties, and the X layout just blows the M away at this. That's the main reason we bought a used X rather than a new M.

Finally, IIRC, you were the one who addressed docking problems with your friend's Mac. I nose the bow up to the dock and the wife steps off with the bow line and cleats it. The X lifeline drops to the deck at the bow, so she just steps over it next to the pulpit. An M would need pelican hooks added to drop the lifeline there. Then, if necessary (downwind of dock), I spring the stern in, and she cleats that.

As far as the flying sailboat, doesn't Frank claim the X already does that?

[TheFarSide]

MacKid, I'm far from the only Mac owner who's owned and used both sail and power before the Mac. And as I've agreed before, the powersailor concept compromises both. But from experience with all three now, it's my opinion your characterization of "totally destroys" is quite an overstatement. This IS from someone who well satisfied his need for speed over many years, and is now slowing down considerably. Despite that, I find the idea of racing sailboats something akin to racing EZ-GO golf carts (yeah, I've done that too). Does your name here indicate you have considerable experience with the MacGregor, or are you an Apple fan?

[Gromet]

Originally Posted by mackid068

This is a thread for "blamming", discrediting and insulting the design of the Macgregor 26. Ok, rant and rave but I beg of you, SUBSTANTIATE your rants.

Here's the first:

The Mac 26 is a powerboat, not a proper cruising sailboat (at least for coastal and oceans), as it lacks a keel and is a planing hull powerboat with a mast.

People,

We are losing the intent of this thread. We are here for blamming the design of the Macgregor 26. We need to discredit and insult.

Let's face it, the boat is fat and ugly. Lets get back to ridiculing it like adolesences would do the fat and ugly kid on the school bus.

I mean if we're not following the intend of the thread then.

This thread is stupid and useless.

[Skippy]

Gromet: This thread is stupid and useless.
So? What else is new?

All manufacturer quotes from COMPARISON OF THE 26X AND THE NEW 26M.

TheFarSide: I'd be interested in where you got the info on lead. IIRC, someone visiting the factory said it looked like a big blob of resin
Okay, it's not lead.

TheFarSide: However, the M also has about a 2' higher mast, sitting on a slightly higher cabin, and taller mainsail (same foot dimension) for a higher center of effort overall as well as a little greater weight aloft. So I'm not sure they'd be a whole lotta difference in heel. To date, there's been shown no clear advantage of the M over the X when it comes to speed.

As far as going upwind is concerned, I would find that very hard to believe. I hear most Mac owners don't sail upwind.

Grogger McYachts:
"The new boat is significantly faster under both power and sail, and quite a bit faster under main alone."
"Under sail, the differences were striking. In all conditions, the new boat had a major speed advantage."

TheFarSide: Not sure what you mean by the M being sturdier. There are a few Xs which have held up to almost 10 years of regular family use.

Grogger McYachts:
"We have beefed up the chainplates, bow plate and all mast hardware"
"We have added an extra layer of fiberglass mat and roving to the underwater area of the hull."
"The deck has more beams, between the liner and the deck"

TheFarSide: Finally, IIRC, you were the one who addressed docking problems with your friend's Mac.
No, that's not me.

[mackid068]

"Does your name here indicate you have considerable experience with the MacGregor, or are you an Apple fan?"

Apple fan.

[Gromet]

Ah, Ha! A closet MacGregor fan!!

Originally Posted by mackid068

_________
Sailing (n.) The art
of getting wet and going nowhere slowly
at great expense (it's fun though)
=/\= A sailing Trekkie!=/\=

[mackid068]

No, not at all. I hate the MacGregor 26 and 65 etc.

[Gromet]

You had me worried.

[mackid068]

By god!! You like the Mac 26! Ugh..

[Skippy]

"Gromet"

Hey, you ARE the dog! I was going ask, thanks for clearing that up.

[TheFarSide]

Originally Posted by Skippy

I hear most Mac owners don't sail upwind.

I'm not sure that's true of most, but it certainly is true for some who have families aboard, especially families with teenagers. We use the outboard pretty much only for launching, retrieving, setting the anchor, and charging the battery at anchor. Not only in my opinion, but my wife's as well, upwind is the most fun point of sail on the X. It's downwind that's a bore and tempting to crank the outboard. We want a cruising spinnaker, and ATN sock and tacker.

Originally Posted by Skippy

Grogger McYachts:

Gotcha. Be skeptical, be very skeptical.

TheFarSide: Finally, IIRC, you were the one who addressed docking problems with your friend's Mac.

Originally Posted by Skippy

No, that's not me.

Sorry. In retrospect, it was Mark, with the picture of the wild European X owner. There are quite a few over there and the boat being able to be container shipped may have something to do with that.

[mighetto]

Nice Job; See Nut Job, an SA Cover story breaking today. Looks like there are no copyright objections.



My complements to the artist, who ever that may be. Still not a TP52 advertisement visable.

"Should we be flattered or call the psycho ward? Long booted out of here, yet another clown continues to be obsessed with SA. Join the club, knucklehead.

7/14/05"

I say that editor is swell guy: Flattered definately. Do they want more Mac26x owners to "join the club". I can not tell. It is worth a plug to their URL in any case.
http://www.sailinganarchy.com/ I like um. The new banner for the Log of the Murrelet will link directly to SA. Looks like that Log will get a quarter of a million hits by the end of August for a year. I have no idea if that is good or bad but it certainly is 5 times more than last year.

Frank.
SSSS Murrelet

[TheFarSide]

Go back to the TP52 thread, Frank. Your pride in posting stuff like this proves what a friggin' troll you are.

[Shife]

Frank, you just don't get it do you. You have been made fun of and rightfully so. You originally posted that image. It is just one of many reasons you are laughed at. You would last about ten seconds in that forum (assuming that you hadn't been kicked out) and you know it.