MacGregorSailors.com

How many years have you owned a Mac, of any type?

I’ll start. I joined this forum in 2004 and did two years of research. Frank M. and Chip H. were my favorite Mac owners that I listened to. In 2006 this forum lead me to an owner in Maryland that was selling his 1999 Mac X and my Admiral and I drove up there and bought it after a short test ride. I had never been a boater and had never even pulled a starter cord. I was green! We drove home to NC without the Mac and bought a Jeep to go back and get the Mac a few weeks later.

How excited were we? We were both 58 years old and here is a post from back then proving how excited we were!

“”””Oct 16, 2006 9:52 pm
Forum: Mac
Btw, I'm counting, and with 23 days as an X owner, we have been out 10 times (without the mast). All using trailer each time. We've got it down …… “”””

At 77, we are much slowed down, but still enjoy our Mac. Great memories. Great times with grandkids, from toddlers then to in-college now. Time flies.

20.66 years. December 2025 will be 21 years.

In October 2004, after researching for over a year, much of it lurking in this forum, we went to the Annapolis In Water Sailboat Show and bought a brand new 2005 . We picked it up in December 2004.

Through this forum, we have been able to locally, nationally, and internationally, meet, and also visit, Mac owners.

Last July with Kevin & Jan McLemore.
Ray, Jan, Kevin, Natalie

In 2007 I owned a small runabout. Growing up sailing in the East Coast along Barnegat Bay to Long Island Sound, I didn't feel the groove of the power boat. The Bayliner was nice to get around quickly, but then what? Once you got to where you were going, it got boring.

One day on the way back to the marina I was passing a "sailboat". But it took me forever to catch up and finally pass it. What was this boat? What kind of sailboat goes so fast under power?

Mountain lakes are notorious for popup thunderstorms. Before we had smartphones with pocket weather radar to see the upcoming weather, getting off the water quickly was important to me.

Over the winter, a bit of research led me to this forum. I joined and found a wealth of information about the Mac. Obviously, the 26X/M was unlike any other boat. Forum members were great to show how versatile and fun these boat are.

I missed sailing and the Mac seemed ideal for my goal of being able to get ahead of the weather.

I contacted BWY and they offered me a "special" on a boat that was in the Seattle Boat Show. I pulled the trigger and drove out there in March of 2008 and brought it home.

I should add, I never stepped foot on a Mac before picking mine after I bought it. All my decisions were based on members of this forum who detailed the qualties of these boats.

It's been the perfect boat for our needs.

I had to go look! I’ve owned mine since about February, 2004, when I made this first post to the forum…

kmclemore wrote: ↑Wed Feb 11, 2004 5:38 pm OK, I'm a newbie here... just bought my first Mac 26 and we're really looking forward to lots of family fun. However, mine came with no cockpit cushions (bottoms or backs) and we may be considering replacing the interior cushions as well. I see the ones from BottomSiders, but at $554 for the cockpit set that seems pricey (?)... any thoughts on either other sources or on making them yourself? Has anyone made their own? Is it practical? My wife is a very good seamstress and could probably sew the fabrics. Thanks!

Kevin McLemore

I think bought my X in 2006. My second boat, after an Ooyang Matilda junker.

opie wrote: ↑Sat Aug 09, 2025 3:51 am How many years have you owned a Mac, of any type?

Coming up on 10 months, bought the 26X last October, have kept it at Lake Powell after towing it from Salt Lake City where we flew to for the purchase.

Planning our 5th trip staying out on the lake over Labor Day weekend.

Since 2011. Lots of good memories.

opie wrote: ↑Sat Aug 09, 2025 3:51 am How many years have you owned a Mac, of any type?

I’ll start. I joined this forum in 2004 and did two years of research. Frank M. and Chip H. were my favorite Mac owners that I listened to. In 2006 this forum lead me to an owner in Maryland that was selling his 1999 Mac X and my Admiral and I drove up there and bought it after a short test ride. I had never been a boater and had never even pulled a starter cord. I was green! We drove home to NC without the Mac and bought a Jeep to go back and get the Mac a few weeks later.

How excited were we? We were both 58 years old and here is a post from back then proving how excited we were!

“”””Oct 16, 2006 9:52 pm
Forum: Mac
Btw, I'm counting, and with 23 days as an X owner, we have been out 10 times (without the mast). All using trailer each time. We've got it down …… “”””

At 77, we are much slowed down, but still enjoy our Mac. Great memories. Great times with grandkids, from toddlers then to in-college now. Time flies.

We bought our in April 1996 and still love it. Also joined the MacGregor Yacht Club of B.C. in June of ‘96 and still a member in fair standing .

I purchased my in March of 2011. I'd been lurking here researching for quite a while before that. In fact I did not even officially join this forum until November of 2012 and it was another two years before I posted anything.

It was Sumner to gave me a vision for what could be done with the blank canvas that was the essence of the Macgregor family. I'd never owned a boat that lent itself to extensive modifications so the idea of customizing a boat had never occurred to me. By his example, Sumner sold me on the Mac.
The boat I had at the time had a rotating mast and I really liked it so I was actually looking at the newer when I came across Frank Mighetto on another forum. He was the reason I gave the X a closer look. He was quite enthusiastic in his praise of the MacX but in the end it was the keel that swung me over to the X (pun intended).

March 2013 and no sign of slowing up........yet.........ouch........my back........and everything else...............still not selling.........

Ditto

sunshinecoasting wrote: ↑Sun Aug 10, 2025 12:58 am March 2013 and no sign of slowing up........yet.........ouch........my back........and everything else...............still not selling.........

16 year anniversary in about a week...

15 years. I bought my 26M from dealer Mike Inmon at the MacGregor factory in California in 2010. I owned a couple of sterndrive powerboats previously that I occasionally used in saltwater around Panama City and Pensacola Florida and had also done some very limited sailing in Hobie Cats and Lasers as a kid. As my family grew to 3 kids in the 2000's I did a year of research on family friendly boats that we could do overnights on and also do a bit of tubing/skiing.

During that research I found that most of the pure powerboats that would fit this bill quickly got into a weight class and cost to own/use that made them impractical for our family. Enter the MacGregor. There were no dealers on the east coast at the time, so I took Mike Inmon's offer to buy "from the factory" where he paid for my plane ticket and I got to tour the factory and test sail a 26M at Roger MacGregors house in Newport Beach. I even got to meet Roger & his wife briefly as we traipsed through his backyard to the dock where he had the MacGregor 70 Anthem docked.

I was hooked by the cost, practicality, and uniqueness of the design.
Been extensively using it every year since, traveling up and down the mid-atlantic and Chesapeake bay, from Philadelphia to the NC outer banks. A lot of good memories with the family were made.
However, my wife (like so many of the MacGregor Admirals) has never been a fan of its sailing tenderness, so when she's aboard now I only hoist the sails in the most optimal conditions and will probably change to a pure sailboat in the next couple of years as we don't do much tubing/wakeboarding anymore.

19 years.
A lifetime boater/sailor, I was looking for a trailable sailboat we could overnight on. I talked to Bill at Boats4Sail and discussed buying a new boat at the end of the year. He directed me to a new/used 26M on Washington Island in Wisconsin. It'd been purchased new the year before but used VERY little. After a test sail, we purchased it; the former owner even delivered it 130 miles to our house.

We've taken it to: the North Channel (2x), Apostle Islands (Lake Superior), the Bay of Green Bay (Lake Michigan) many times, Lake Geneva (WI), kept it on Lake Winnebago (WI) all of those years, and now western PA.

I've added shore power, curtains, Bimini, full enclosure, dodger, square-top mainsail, LED lighting both interior and exterior, a composting head and a number of other conveniences.

Thanks to the many suggestions and modifications on this forum, our ownership has been enhanced greatly.

dustoff wrote: ↑Sun Aug 10, 2025 10:11 am I even got to meet Roger & his wife briefly as we traipsed through his backyard to the dock where he had the MacGregor 70 Anthem docked.

wow...Imagine having a 70' boat docked behind your house