MacGregor 26X seaworthy?

webcraft said:
To get back to the OP, I would go to the Scillies on this boat with a good 24 hour forecast and no potential surprises lurking at the edge of the synoptic chart - that is, assuming all the standard safety equipment for this type of passage was on board. As someone else said previously though, I couldn't guarantee I would be available for the return passage at the time of the skipper's choosing. You could go anywhere in the British Isles in a boat like this and have a great trip if you were prepared to wait on weather long enough, but if you set sail regardless to meet deadlines you might end up rescued or dead.

- W
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As the OP was made in 2002 he's either been and survived or turned down the opportunity!
 
Startling thread this. Just like the Bav ones, it's a mixture of some comment from those who have owned the boat and have knowledge together with the uninformed prejudices of a lot of sneerers who have done little more than look at brochures.

The OP has asked a question. People with MacGregor experience have answered and said , in effect, yes. Obviously subject to conditions since the Scillies isnt a place to get caught anchored in an 8 let alone sail there in one.
 
Madhatter said:
I was just being a little devil bringing this thread back because it proves ******* ***> ******
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Right, I'm gonna revive an even older one, just so that *$^%* and then 5$* or £^$^£"*£ =*%*, and in general, %3$&* and it's true that *&%£ or &*£$...so, yeah, think of that.
 
Hi, I'm 60 and am retiring to a location close to the Carrick Roads (Falmouth) in the near future.

I've sailed occasionally over the years (from Laser > Sun Fast 37), but never owned a boat; something I now intend to remedy.

Without boring you with my selection criteria, suffice to say, after 9 months "research", I keep coming back to the MacGregor 26M, maybe even a new Tattoo 26.


I came across this thread yesterday and was very refreshed by the balance of views represented. As an outsider to the Yachty world (not somewhere I want to stay particularly) I too found the demonizing of the Mac interesting.


I say refreshing because it certainly helps one to consider many aspects of boat choice - surely one of the main purposes/benefits of a forum. For that I say thank you.

Just in closing, it has been mentioned that of the 5000 MacGregors built, it's extremely hard to find evidence of problems. This may have been true many years ago but my understanding is that the figure for boats built is now well in excess of 40,000.

Finally, on the subject of sailing a Mac in strong winds; I'd recommend taking a look at these two videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smlP6iXnk2s&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxmDYpj_lo8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Regards,

Mike
 
MikeFloutier said:
Hi, I'm 60 and am retiring to a location close to the Carrick Roads (Falmouth) in the near future.

I've sailed occasionally over the years (from Laser > Sun Fast 37), but never owned a boat; something I now intend to remedy.

Without boring you with my selection criteria, suffice to say, after 9 months "research", I keep coming back to the MacGregor 26M, maybe even a new Tattoo 26.


I came across this thread yesterday and was very refreshed by the balance of views represented. As an outsider to the Yachty world (not somewhere I want to stay particularly) I too found the demonizing of the Mac interesting.


I say refreshing because it certainly helps one to consider many aspects of boat choice - surely one of the main purposes/benefits of a forum. For that I say thank you.

Just in closing, it has been mentioned that of the 5000 MacGregors built, it's extremely hard to find evidence of problems. This may have been true many years ago but my understanding is that the figure for boats built is now well in excess of 40,000.

Finally, on the subject of sailing a Mac in strong winds; I'd recommend taking a look at these two videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smlP6iXnk2s&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxmDYpj_lo8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Regards,

Mike
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The 26M is quite a bit different than the 26X .
The Tattoo 26 is a 26M built by the Mac family after the main factory closed when the old man retired.
 
Thanks for the welcome, it's good to be here!

I appreciate that the M is a refined version of the X but I'm assuming (given similar, though less exhaustive, threads elsewhere re. The M) that most of the replies still apply. Anyway, the main thing is that they help me to think clearly.

By the way, although the 26 is now made by Roger MacGregor's daughter and son-in-law in Florida, the old McG factory in Costa Mesa, California is still running. Although I live in the UK, my daughter and her family live a 20 minute drive from the factory.

My wife and I were visiting in early August and I took the opportunity to visit the factory. Mike Inmon was kind enough to show me round. He's in the process of building new MacGregor 65's (may have been 70 I can't remember). It was great to watch the process. One thing in particular was being able to lift the carbon fibre mast for this boat with just one hand.
 
charles_reed said:
Why don't you go - we'll all be watching and you'll join Marie Curie in pushing back the frontiers of human knowledge.

Myself, being a devout coward, I'd think twice against going aboard one tied up in a marina.
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I've no comments on the mcgregor but Marie curie's notebooks are still so radioactive they have to be kept in a lead box
 
I know this thread is old, but I have never read such a bigoted and ignorant load of claptrap written by people who have never set foot on a particular boat.

These people pass of misinformation and hearsay or what a mate told a guy who told me as if it were fact without doing any research into.

Now I own a JOG boat, yes those lovely offshore racers, I also own a Mac 26X which apparently according to the uneducated is nothing like a 26M, in truth there is very little difference except one uses a dagger board instead of a swing keel, a slight variation in the Vee shape of the hull, the 26M also got a slightly taller rotating mast and a little bit of fixed ballasted in the bilge. For all intents and purposes they are close enough to being the same.

Now let me tell you the FACTS, not what someone told me, not what I read off another forum, the absolute facts of comparing real boats

As I said I have a JOG racer, the 26X is far more stable than the JOG boat and faster, the handling of the Mac X in heavy weather is an absolute joy and just builds your confidence, I have never had issues with the rig, it may look light but it gets the job done, its designed to round up before it get flattened and it does.

The most critics that have sailed one are just trying to cover their own inability to adjust to the idiosyncrasies of the boat, sure they are a bit different and display slightly different characteristics than some boats, but my JOG boat has its own strange little vices, a good sailor will learn and make adjustments , a poor tradesman blames his tools and ut seems there are plenty of poor tradesman out there.

Would I trust the Mac with my partner and kids onboard, you bet I would and I do, way more than the JOG boat

So how about instead of just sprouting rubbish, actually do some research, you will find close to 10,000 Macgregor 26X and 26M's have been built between 1995 and 2014 and I would say given the numbers produced they have a safety record that is second to none
 
Goody,
stands back and waits for all the none believers to surface and repeat themselves and tell us how comfortable folkboats are when 6 are on board crossing the pond in a hurricane :rolleyes::angel:
 
sailboatmike said:
I know this thread is old, but I have never read such a bigoted and ignorant load of claptrap written by people who have never set foot on a particular boat.

These people pass of misinformation and hearsay or what a mate told a guy who told me as if it were fact without doing any research into.

Now I own a JOG boat, yes those lovely offshore racers, I also own a Mac 26X which apparently according to the uneducated is nothing like a 26M, in truth there is very little difference except one uses a dagger board instead of a swing keel, a slight variation in the Vee shape of the hull, the 26M also got a slightly taller rotating mast and a little bit of fixed ballasted in the bilge. For all intents and purposes they are close enough to being the same.

Now let me tell you the FACTS, not what someone told me, not what I read off another forum, the absolute facts of comparing real boats

As I said I have a JOG racer, the 26X is far more stable than the JOG boat and faster, the handling of the Mac X in heavy weather is an absolute joy and just builds your confidence, I have never had issues with the rig, it may look light but it gets the job done, its designed to round up before it get flattened and it does.

The most critics that have sailed one are just trying to cover their own inability to adjust to the idiosyncrasies of the boat, sure they are a bit different and display slightly different characteristics than some boats, but my JOG boat has its own strange little vices, a good sailor will learn and make adjustments , a poor tradesman blames his tools and ut seems there are plenty of poor tradesman out there.

Would I trust the Mac with my partner and kids onboard, you bet I would and I do, way more than the JOG boat

So how about instead of just sprouting rubbish, actually do some research, you will find close to 10,000 Macgregor 26X and 26M's have been built between 1995 and 2014 and I would say given the numbers produced they have a safety record that is second to none
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Sorry Sailboatmike, forgot to say welcome to the forum. :encouragement:
 
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