Re handling waves of course it does. It has a finkeel boat set of lines. Plus vacuum bagged biaxual layup IIRC when I was doing research. But Its a much much bigger boat. A foot shorter then my old yawl maybe only a foot less beam. I suppose its a move up.vessel if you just wanted to save money by storing it on its trailer.
Re defensive. Lol not me. I sailed my v 22 to Georgetown. I knew exactly what I was getting when I bought it, and when I bought the M. Both boats were acquired for a very specific sort of sailing. Nothing else would do except a self built one off, and that's pure insanity unless you got plenty of money. At least for the foamcore and epoxy I would have made it out of. Resale value of pretty much zero on custom oddball boats too, no matter what calibre build.
Re moving up. Sailing the 26 is harder then the 22. I have to be more careful where I anchor it, even or ESPECIALLY in shallow water. It's very easy to find yourself blown or washed aground in the process of getting the hook up, and getting the boat aimed into deep water. I've pulled the 26 off. With difficulty. Forget that with the 32. You will end up treating that boat as if it drew three feet while cruising. Beaching? I wouldn't. I've been on cats that drew little but were so unwieldy and had so much mast windage you wouldn't dare let them get close to a beach. I mean sure maybe in peter perfect conditions as rare as those are. Once a boat gets past a certain size, the whole shoal draft bit starts to go out the window for me. You got deck space for a nice dinghy, the larger boat will lay comfortably in deeper water. I suppose you could jam it into Pipe creek, but I did that with three foot of draft. It meant anchoring fifty feet farther out. Where am I going with all this? After I lusted after dreamed and then actually thought about it, the only advantage the Hake has over a keelboat like my yawl is you can store it on a trailer provided you can launch and rig it with enough ease to bother.
And oh yea, my #18,000 yawl handles waves better then the Hake will
Ix
The mungo tow vehicle you're going to need will cost 50 grand...New...that's a lot of slip rental. Nothing like bring under sail in 10 minutes. Moon light cruises, on a lark after or before work...
Not so much 
but be careful if you desire to race him or others here who like that sort of play time and, do quiet well at it.. IMHO Macgregors X&M get bad bad rap because 70% of us are like me .. We can sail but we're not great at it.. 
