New 26M

[fouz]

But how is the f70 working out?

[BOAT]

Is it expensive?

[wincrasher26]

The F70 is fine. It's quiet for an outboard. I couldn't really tell you if it's faster or more economical tan a 50 or 60. In hindsight, I should have just gotten a small engine as speed in this thing is not my bag. If you want to do water sports, a bowrider makes a lot more sense.

Is a Seaward expensive? That depends on your circumstances I suppose. Around $200k for a new one with lotsa options including radar. A Ranger tug of similar size, another trailerable cruiser option, is about $300k nicely equipped. As always, used ones are much less, but used is not how I roll baby.

[BOAT]

The ranger tug is a very nice boat too - but it can't sail!

200 grand for a trailer-able boat?? (Now your making me think about those ghetto racers blasting hip hop at 600 decibels all up and down the Sacramento Delta). Drug dealers with more money than brains - I dunno. I mean - Why get a cigarette racer if your not even man enough to open the throttle?? I never seen any of those homeys go over 40 MPH and the water is as flat a glass! What a waste of boat.

I dunno - 200 grand for a trailer boat just never made sense because a slip is only 500 a month. (200 grand would cover 33 YEARS of slip fees!!! )

It would be WAY cheaper and WAY EASIER to just buy a REAL boat and pay the slip fees than blow all that on a stupid trailer. I dunno, it does not make sense to me.

[wincrasher26]

It makes sense if you need the trailer able aspect. If you live near the coast, and you want to sail oceans, then yes, a boat stored a a marina is more practical. BTW, any new boat around 30 ft is gonna be upward of $150k - priced a Catalina or a Hunter of that size?

The Ranger tugs forum has several very interesting blogs chronicling people's adventures going to various big lakes and rivers around the country. Sounds like a lot of fun to me, and only really possible with a trailer able boat. There's definitely more to explore in this country than Florida and the Bahamas!

Now I'm not dissing doing that in a Mac. You certainly can and on the cheap. I may to a certain extent. But I would also like a bigger, more comfortable boat with AC, a decent bed, and a head with a shower.

[BOAT]

I totally get you, and agree.

Yes, the Ranger Tug does indeed make a LOT of sense to me. That's sort of what I was wanting for a while too - a trailer-able boat I could explore around all over the place in and still be able to live on board for a week. When I started my boat hunt I was looking at Cubby Cruisers - I was not even thinking MAC.

But being next to the Ocean I feel safer in a sailboat than a power boat. When the waves get big the power boating scares me and I’m am afraid it will tip over. I already tipped over in a sail boat and nothing bad happened so I guess that's why I'm not afraid in the sailboat. Since 80% of my time will be on the open ocean I finally had to face the fact that a cubby cruiser would just be too silly out in the middle of the San Pedro Channel. Out there you really need sails. It's not only safer but way more stable in the big swells and waves.

When I admitted a sailboat was the only option I actually dropped the idea of getting a boat again because I didn’t like taking a traditional sailboat on the Sacramento Delta and lake Powell and all the other places I have been to.

Thus - alas - I went back to look at the cheesy boat I saw 13 years ago at a boat show - the Macgregor X boat. Cheesy, but at least it had a stand up head I could convert to a shower! When I finally got to a show to get a new boat and saw that everything was changed on the MAC and there was no more bathroom I pretty much gave up again. I saw that little head and said ferget it.

It took me a while to come back around - when I realized I was too old to spend weeks on ANY boat anymore (it's like when you go from a tent to an RV - you can't really go back to a tent after 30 years in a big motor-home). Fact was I was only going to be overnight in any boat for a weekend.

And a shower?
I PULL my MAC with a MOTOR-HOME! so when I get back to dock and want a hot shower where do you think I go?? In boat? nope - why when there is a nice hot shower right there in the parking lot? I came to my senses an bought the MAC.

[fouz]

So you have not run your wot with the f70?

Just trying to get some info on the f70 on a mac cause it's on the top of the list if/when a repower comes.

[dlandersson]

I looked at a Hake Seaward 32RK at the Chicago Boat Show last winter. Nice boat...but $150,000? A used 2002 32RK went for $80,000 and that was one time only (an estate sale). My Mac26X? $13-$14k. That's a LOT of opportunity cost.

The F70 is fine. It's quiet for an outboard. I couldn't really tell you if it's faster or more economical tan a 50 or 60. In hindsight, I should have just gotten a small engine as speed in this thing is not my bag. If you want to do water sports, a bowrider makes a lot more sense.

Is a Seaward expensive? That depends on your circumstances I suppose. Around $200k for a new one with lotsa options including radar. A Ranger tug of similar size, another trailerable cruiser option, is about $300k nicely equipped. As always, used ones are much less, but used is not how I roll baby.

[mastreb]

Yeah, I live in San Diego where there are plenty of slips and I've slipped a boat here for eight years. There's more costs than just the $500/mo.--It's $100/mo. for underwater cleaning, and $1000/year for new ablative paint. Lot of people have club minimums as well, pump-out fees, dock electrical bills, etc. By the time you're done it's more reasonably $1000/mo. Then you do the math and you've spent $100,000 to keep a 30 year old columbia that only cost you $5000--why so cheap? Because the P.O. couldn't afford the $1000/mo. to keep it.

With the Mac, I'm paying <$200/mo. to keep her mast-up at a Marina with full privileges, no cleaning, no other fees, no wear and tear. I get 4 days in a slip at a time for free no limit on usage, so we just put in on Thursday and pull out Sunday evening. Ramp is 100' from the slip. Eight year cost is $20,000 vice $100,000.

So heck yes, I'd pay $150K for a 32 foot trailer sailor, because that's $80,000 going into the boat rather than into a hole in the water where the boat floats.

But thanks to the Mac, I only had to pay $40K (after all was said and done). I'd have spent another $36K in that time just keeping my old Columbia in the water.

Matt

[Ixneigh]

You can't compare the hake 32 to a mac. It's a totally different boat. The hake is big, needs a huge tow vehicle, and needs space to park it. My Mac barely fits in my yard. Plus, its nice to be able to "roll" baby, but I certainly won't be buying a brand new toy that costs that much. Now, let's look at cruising. I just returned from two weeks of nonstop on an M. I got the M for the least draft to space ratio. I'm not interested in open ocean journeys. Shooting flats and shoals on a mac means you get out and push if you get stuck. Been there. On a heavier boat...so your stuck in a foot of water. Your still stuck. You ain't pushing #6000 very far. Top of the tide? Ummmmm. Last resort I can drain the water ballast and maybe float off next tide. I wasn't shooting the tides like that this time out but watch me with a month of cruise time. The hake ain't going to skitter too well either. Two waterspouts in fifteen minutes had my throttle hand pretty itchy. Plus how well does the hake sail with no keel down? If I can't sail it in 2 feet of water I'm not interested no matter how well it sails in deeper water.
I love to sail.period. the Mac is not the fastest thing around but sailing is not just about speed. I've not sailed a hake but I've sailed lots of other boats. The mac sails fine. I might have gone with the rk26 but I wanted headroom and used ones were hard to find. Turns out the mac was better for what I wanted. Sure the marginal build quality is an issue, but I can fix all that, eventually. For most owners it won't ever be an issue. If it were they would never have sold as many as they did. I suppose the need for a real shower could be a sticking point. Think I'd rather get a slip every few days and use 100 gallons of hot water in the marina showers.
Ix

[Divecoz]

Everything you said Ix..and if someone has the money..I doubt they would consider a Mac. The Mac Literally was never designed or built or even considered with those folks in mind..I have No Doubt In My Mind.. Roger spent a LOT of time developing his Target Group.. before he ever set pencil to paper designing ANY of his boats... My brother owns a Shamrock 29 W.A. Twin Diesels.. Its seems that almost Everybody who is a boater knows what a Shamrock is .. They too sold a lot of boats.. They Are No Longer in business... Macgregor boats are what they are, strip em down or load em up.. They are what they are. They are not Blue Water Boats.. You cannot even make them into real blue water Cruisers.. I also own another boat.. It to is not a Top of The Line boat.. Its Not a Grady White but but at least its a long ways ahead of being a Bayliner.. I am not the only one here whom for personal reasons didn't float my boat for 2 years. For 2 years every time we looked at plunking down $2000 for the seasons slip we thought we had a buyer for our house.. No Big Deal WW&S sat next to the garage for free.We did sell that house.. and we bought another home . This time in SW Fla. We live on a Saltwater Sailboat Canal just about 15 minutes from the Harbor.. and now both boats sit on their trailers waiting for my seawall dock and boat-lift to be installed and the both sit there for free.. .. Both boats cost me less than a 1/3 the cost of a Seaward 32 or a Shamrock 29 W.A. (

You can't compare the hake 32 to a mac. It's a totally different boat. The hake is big, needs a huge tow vehicle, and needs space to park it. My Mac barely fits in my yard. Plus, its nice to be able to "roll" baby, but I certainly won't be buying a brand new toy that costs that much. Now, let's look at cruising. I just returned from two weeks of nonstop on an M. I got the M for the least draft to space ratio. I'm not interested in open ocean journeys. Shooting flats and shoals on a mac means you get out and push if you get stuck. Been there. On a heavier boat...so your stuck in a foot of water. Your still stuck. You ain't pushing #6000 very far. Top of the tide? Ummmmm. Last resort I can drain the water ballast and maybe float off next tide. I wasn't shooting the tides like that this time out but watch me with a month of cruise time. The hake ain't going to skitter too well either. Two waterspouts in fifteen minutes had my throttle hand pretty itchy. Plus how well does the hake sail with no keel down? If I can't sail it in 2 feet of water I'm not interested no matter how well it sails in deeper water.
I love to sail.period. the Mac is not the fastest thing around but sailing is not just about speed. I've not sailed a hake but I've sailed lots of other boats. The mac sails fine. I might have gone with the rk26 but I wanted headroom and used ones were hard to find. Turns out the mac was better for what I wanted. Sure the marginal build quality is an issue, but I can fix all that, eventually. For most owners it won't ever be an issue. If it were they would never have sold as many as they did. I suppose the need for a real shower could be a sticking point. Think I'd rather get a slip every few days and use 100 gallons of hot water in the marina showers.
Ix

[wincrasher26]

Wow. Guess I don't understand the defensive tone of the above 2 posts. No-one was comparing these two boats as an either-or proposition. I was suggesting that one was a suitable move-up boat with some of the desirable aspects of the Mac.

You did get a chuckle with the suggestion that a Mac is a superior sailing vessel. That was a joke, right? I'm not going to waste typing clicks to debate that point.

[Catigale]

White or blue Mac? African or European Mac?

[dlandersson]

Just to be clear, the 32RK handles waves better.

You can't compare the hake 32 to a mac. It's a totally different boat. The hake is big, needs a huge tow vehicle, and needs space to park it. My Mac barely fits in my yard. Plus, its nice to be able to "roll" baby, but I certainly won't be buying a brand new toy that costs that much. Now, let's look at cruising. I just returned from two weeks of nonstop on an M. I got the M for the least draft to space ratio. I'm not interested in open ocean journeys. Shooting flats and shoals on a mac means you get out and push if you get stuck. Been there. On a heavier boat...so your stuck in a foot of water. Your still stuck. You ain't pushing #6000 very far. Top of the tide? Ummmmm. Last resort I can drain the water ballast and maybe float off next tide. I wasn't shooting the tides like that this time out but watch me with a month of cruise time. The hake ain't going to skitter too well either. Two waterspouts in fifteen minutes had my throttle hand pretty itchy. Plus how well does the hake sail with no keel down? If I can't sail it in 2 feet of water I'm not interested no matter how well it sails in deeper water.
I love to sail.period. the Mac is not the fastest thing around but sailing is not just about speed. I've not sailed a hake but I've sailed lots of other boats. The mac sails fine. I might have gone with the rk26 but I wanted headroom and used ones were hard to find. Turns out the mac was better for what I wanted. Sure the marginal build quality is an issue, but I can fix all that, eventually. For most owners it won't ever be an issue. If it were they would never have sold as many as they did. I suppose the need for a real shower could be a sticking point. Think I'd rather get a slip every few days and use 100 gallons of hot water in the marina showers.
Ix

[dlandersson]

That's how I see a 32RK - a "move-up" boat with many of the family features I like about the Mac - and it handles waves better.

Wow. Guess I don't understand the defensive tone of the above 2 posts. No-one was comparing these two boats as an either-or proposition. I was suggesting that one was a suitable move-up boat with some of the desirable aspects of the Mac.

You did get a chuckle with the suggestion that a Mac is a superior sailing vessel. That was a joke, right? I'm not going to waste typing clicks to debate that point.