Regarding the MacGregor 26

Mac26=big no, no except for inland. Or so it seems.

 

That is more an issue of a poorly exectuted design than an inherently poor design.
The Synergy 1000 I race on has a stainless steel blade with a lead bulb.
The moment it exerts on the hul at the keel joint is roughly the same
as if it were a lead keel of lower aspect ratio... partly because being
a racing boat the displacement is so much less (4500 lb for 33 ft boat)
The key is building the support structure in the hull to distribute the
moment which the keel exerts on the hull at the joint.

With a 35 HP or larger outboard, sure.
With 8 HP, no.
The key is that if you watch the weather forecasts, and are
less than half an hour from land, any basically seaworthy boat
is probably suitable for the trip to Catalina.
But if the weather gets rough and the engine quits, you'd
probably be best off if you have a high wattage (non handheld) VHF.

 

What is interesting is that a number of sailors have been caught in very bad conditions while sailing Macs yet not a single failure of the rig is described in the many M26 logs. With so many Macs sailing, sailors are bound to get caught in bad weather yet you never read of the rig comming down.

Two accounts stand in mind: (many more in the various M26 blogs)

1- Guy goes out on Lake Michigan on Mac26X. Bad weather on horizon but decides to stay out because the 50hp will get him back quickly. Weather moves in and he finds that returning to port is just not feasable (braking waves and a small entrance). Makes the best call and goes back out and weathers up to 80kt winds for 18 hours. Very uncomfortable but no damage to the boat. Spends much of the time running under bare poles or running with just a bit of the foresail rolled out.

2- New sailor takes 26X out in NW. Anchors. Weather picks up and wind shifts and the anchorage is no longer safe. Pulls anchor and tries to sail back to his marina. Really bad squall goes through but he makes it and docks. Other sailboats not so lucky one even ends up on the rocks. Again no damage to the boat.

Many of these boats are sailed in Europe under "normal" 20kts+ of wind.


There must be something in the design that makes the very light rig "tolerant". Perhaps the fact that the boat is tender serves to limit the load on the rig?

Maybe a sailboat designer can comment.

 

First of all, the mast is shorter and the sail is smaller than usual, so the wind has less force and leverage to exert on the rig. Second, the righting moment is low, so the boat tends to heel over more in a gust, further reducing the stress on the rig. Most people judge the rigging based on typical stress levels experienced on a real sailboat, not realizing that the rig of this model never catches much wind in the first place.

 

Skippy,
That makes sense.

I sailed on a Mac26 and she gets to be a lot of fun at 20kts or so. Usually with full main and jib. Boat likes a lot of wind.