MacGregorSailors.com

Like I've posted before, I'm seriously thinking about a Mac 26 as my next boat. My question to you folks is do you normally keep your boat in a slip or do you trailer it everywhere you go? My last boat was a Catalina 27, in a slip, in salt walter. It seemed to take more abuse if we didn't use it. The more it sat, the more things would go wrong with it. It was a constant worry. Realizing the Mac isn't the sailboat the Catalina was, IMO, I consider the fact it's relatively easily trailerable a big plus, if for no other reason, it's not just sitting in salt water.

Am I being reasonable with myself? Is the Mac realy as easy as it looks? Rigging, launching, retrieving, trailering? Do you folks go through this every time you want to sail? Thanks!

--Greg

Hi Greg, we trailer our boat every time we go out. We're new boaters so we had to learn how to rig, launch, and retreive the boat but it only took a few trips to get our rigging time down to about 35 minutes. Launch and retrieve was scary at first but with practice it has become easy. You will figure it out even faster since you've got prior sailing experience.

Good Luck
Morris

Not as easy as it looks. But, easy enough. Better to have a dock. Takes me about 1 to 1-1/2 hours for everything. So, it is ok if you are keeping it in for a couple days.

We do a lot of trailering but usually have a slip too. We can rig the boat in about an hour with the Admiral and me. It's as easy a boat to rig as we'ver ever had. I've helped with rigging, launching and retrieving lots of boat types including Catalina 25s. The Mac is much easier than the Catalina.

Daniel

The Yam lives in my side yard. I trailer it every time I go out, whether to go boating or camping. I can raise the mast and prep alone in about a half hour, 45 minutes with help. Catching cables on various pieces of hardware when I am rolling the mast fore and aft is the only problem I face. I have streamlined a lot of the hardware and save a lot of time by using clips to hold the spreaders on. I unclip both of them and my shrouds don't ride on the safety cables and are very simple to organize. Plus when moving about the deck I don't trip over them. I no longer use nuts on my rudder safety bolts, the bolts never move with the weight of the rudders on them. Next I will find a better way to attach the boom to the mast. The mast raising system is a must as I have a roller furled jenny. It takes time to rig a boat in a slip too, so I don't consider prep time a big deal. I have sailed boats from sabots to a 92' square rigged barquentine and enjoy my Mac as much as any boat I have been on. Plus my 60HP ETEC gets me places faster than any of them could.

Catching cables on various pieces of hardware when I am rolling the mast fore and aft is the only problem I face. I have streamlined a lot of the hardware and save a lot of time by using clips to hold the spreaders on.

I agree this is a time saver.

I no longer use nuts on my rudder safety bolts

I may try this. On the off chance that it did come out, the rudder is tied up anyway.

Next I will find a better way to attach the boom to the mast.

Let us know what you come up with here.

Daniel

Our 26X has been in saltwater since 1999 except for one winter. I haul it every year for cleaning, bottom paint and engine maintenance. There's always a build up of growth in the centreboard trunk, the remainder power washes easily. I change the centreboard line every other year.

However I do use the boat several times a month - every month including the cold ones! Temperature in southern British Columbia is usually reasonable except for January/February.

No sign of damage to hull etc. And minimal prep time before getting out on the water. After six years of storage, I sold the trailer!

Geoff

Compared to the Catalina 27, the Mac 26 powersailor certainly has to be MUCH easier to rig and launch, not to mention it's trailerable without permits and at night.

But that said, we found trailer-sailing the Mac to be a real p-i-t-a and not worth the trouble unless we were going to be out 4-5 days. I'm sure that would be the case for us even for our Capri 18, despite being able to raise the mast without having to rig a gin pole, since we have to extend the trailer tongue to launch or retrieve it. That's definitely not required with the Mac sitting so low on the trailer.

The Mac was also a bear to dock and get on or off the trailer in a crosswind, even with our extended trailer guide-ons. Compared to a pure sailboat, especially a keelboat, or a pure powerboat, the Mac powersailor handles like a pig, partially due to the huge freeboard from the standing headroom, and the lack of a powerboat's (and Mac 19's) hard chines. Many 26 owners find backing into a slip easier than trying to control the bow blowing around forward, but you can't do that with the trailer.

It doesn't power on the trailer anywhere near as easily as shown in the video. We got away with it a couple of times but pulling up very slowly until contact, then using all 50HP, but more than one owner has had the wood come off the forward v-bunk winding up with the hull on metal when powering on. Walk the boat up to the trailer with dock lines and crank it on with the winch.

Whether to slip or trailer is a highly individual decision. Some folks are fine with trailer-sailing either boat, but we're not. YMMV You may find the trailer-sailing grass looks much greener than it is. If you do, note the Mac at least has no underwater through-hulls to fail and sink it at the dock (BoatUS's largest claims), and if a hurricane hits it there, it will still be floating, even if on its side if unballasted.

--
Moe

We are fortunate to store our 26X mast up on the trailer. About 200 yds from the ramp to storage yard. Makes launching and retrieving almost as simple as an ordinary power boat. However its a 1 hour drive to the boat from home.

We trailer. Most of our sails are multi-day trips so to rig and load is usually a two hour job. We do have pinned spreaders, a weather-vane, and a furled genny. I unbolt the top of the forestay and slide the furler up the mast for transport. That is the most complicated re-rig that must be done before launch, not bad, just a pain.

What CrPlater said. NOt as easy as advertised - - - but easy enough. I am in a slip in salt water and use my Mac A LOT - - - and won't trailer unless mandatory as there are plenty of destinations right around where I am in Marina Del Rey.

Suggest you SEARCH rigging - - - and - - - trailering - - - time to rig - - - there has been much previous discussion on these subjects including some polls.

Rick

However I do use the boat several times a month - every month including the cold ones! Temperature in southern British Columbia is usually reasonable except for January/February.

But it rains a lot here, an awfull lot. in my homegrown experience!
Since we are fair weather sailors we keep ours in the driveway and slip during sailing season. Even in a slip it still takes prep time to get under way, there is no escaping it. There is a cost saving on moorage though, it is free in your driveway and easily accessible for winter refit projects. Inevitably, you will do upgrades, some are just too good to pass up - check the mods page. Wether you trailer or slip, expect some prep time and marketing hype is just that - marketing hype. Spend some time reading opinions here, there are several things I would have done differently in hindsight but was not aware of this resource at the time.

I have a Mac25, it took about 40 minutes to set up and take down, and for half a year we kept it in the driveway.

With little kids (5 and 6), a narrow driveway, on-street parkers, and Chicago traffic, towing and set up was a bear for us, so we got a slip in Waukegan Illinois. We keep it in the driveway over the winter.

We stored ours mast up by the lake last spring since we would be sailing every weekend. It launches so easily that I think that it as almost as fast as a slip since you park right beside the boat to load food and gear and then just drop it in the water. Most of the time, however, we store it in the driveway. The reason we wanted a trailerable boat was so we could explore different lakes and rivers and not just see the same terrain every weekend. I love working on the boat and having it in the driveway provides me with almost as much fun as sailing it. Last summer we pulled the mast and rigging off and launched into a small river and pulled the grandkids on inner tubes. We also floated to the Missouri River and explored it and other small rivers. We even got into water so shallow that we had to raise rudders and motor and use the oars to pole the boat to deeper water. That was great fun. The Mac is so useful for so many different jobs. We take about 45 min to raise mast and load boat.
Ned

We purchased a used 26X which the previous owner kept all summer at a slip in IL. We hauled ours to Lake Erie and it remained at a slip through mid October when we pulled it out. Took it to the nearby power boat wash to clean off the bottom (very little there, came right off with the water only as it had decent bottom paint), then dropped it off for new bottom paint as it was through it's 3rd season.

One of the only real problems the boat has is fading of the black stripes on top, (the black below the rub rail looks like new) and we had that fixed too by having them repainted. So nice in a slip, that instead of 1-1 1/2 hours to launch we can be loaded and on the water in 10-15 minutes as we simply pull off the mainsail cover, motor out, and unfurl the genny.