It's a piece of junk.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Jim Cate" wrote in message
...


DSK wrote:

Jim Cate wrote:

Actually, the ballast was added because of the taller mast, and to
provide greater stability when powering without the water ballast.


I don't think so. The mast on the Mac 26Ms I have seen (five or six now)
look exactly the same as the older model. Can you give some figures?

The mast on the 26M is 30 feet; that on the 26X was a little more than
28 feet.


My wife & I owned a water ballasted Hunter 19 for 10

years and it sailed fine... in fact we outsailed Mac 26Xs many times
in it, and a Mac 26M a couple of times.



And when, exactly did you out sail the Mac 26M, Doug? There's very few
of them out their, and I seriously doubt that you sailed against an
experienced M owner, particularly since most of us haven't had our
boats more than a few months.


Well, you can make all the excuses you want. Either the boat sails well
or it doesn't.

Nope. Either the boat AND the skipper sail well or they don't.



I can't help it if it appeals to people who know nothing
about sailing. I've given details before, but you seem rather dense, so
here we go again:

I have sailed our Hunter 19 in company with a MacGregor 26M (you could
tell by the red hull) several times. There is one in our marina. There
are couple others that regularly come and launch at the nearby ramp. The
Hunter 19 easily could sail rings around the Mac 26M, in light air or
heavy, upwind or down. Actually, it's not so bad going downwind, but it
appears difficult to steer with any degree of chop. I mean, maybe it's
not really but the skippers sure are working the wheel back & forth.

Jeff, this again suggests that you need some basic education regarding
elementary principles of logic. - You seem to think that this anecdote
of yours proves that the Mac 26M is slower than the Hunter 19. It only
provides the experience of one sailor (you). What would be needed to
prove that the Mac 26M isn't as fast as the Hunter 19 is for experienced
sailors to sail several of each type of boat on several occasions under
various conditions. In other words, you have a very small sampling, and
you have no external controls, etc. - What's also interesting is how you
are getting all that experience sailing against Mac 26M's in view of the
fact that there the M's were only introduced last year, and there are
very few of them on the water, and further, that they never made a Mac
26M with a red hull. - Very strange, Jeff!





The point of my note was not that all the listed features are unique
to the Mac, but that the Mac offers a package of features not usually
provided in a cruising sailboat of this size.


Not really. You just have to know where to look

This is what I mean when I say that you know nothing except what
MacGregor advertising tells you. There are several boat builders who
produce centerboard or lift-keel boats with poitive flotation, you just
don't know about them. Do a web search for Etap or Sadler, they build
some particularly nice ones up to about 40'.


Once more, I never said that the Mac is the only boat to provide these
features. I said that not many boats, including those discussed
frequently on this board, include such a combination of features. I said
that "the Mac offers a package of features not usually provided in a
cruising sailboat of this size."


And when are YOU going to actually compare them, Doug? - If you did,
you would see that the hull shape of the M is substantially different
from that of the X.


I have. It isn't. How many times will I repeat this? I don't know, it's
getting to be pretty dull. You obviously have a head like a cement
block. Go and look for yourself... although you should prepare yourself
emotionally for a big let-down when you realize that MacGregor
advertising is not Gospel truth.

What you need to do is to get some old newspapers or a tarp, take it to
an area in which both a Mac 26M and a Mac 26X are parked, put the
newspaper or tarp UNDER the boats, one a a time, and look up at the
hulls of the two boats (instead of just looking at them from the side).
You would then see that the hulls of the two boats are distinctly and
significantly different and could not come off the same female mold.

Jim