Sunday 15 July 2012

MacGregor Motorsailer

MacGregor 


So at last we had a weekend with some sunshine between the rain showers. Off to see a MacGregor motor-sailer for sale close by. We’ve discussed motor sailers quite a bit on this blog and speculated on their appropriateness for my purpose. One advantage of a English motor-sailer is that they tend to be excellent sea boats coming from a traditional fishing boat lineage. Fans, tell you they offer the best of all worlds, heavy stable robust sailing boats with a get you home option of a big powerful engine just in case wind and tide are against you. Critics say that motor-sailers are poor sailboats and not much better as motor vessels.

But a MacGregor is a different kettle of fish, a MacGregor is a American design coming from a very different school of naval architecture. MacGregor have been building sailboats for 40 years and they claim to have sold more sailboats than any other manufacturer.

Their unique feature for their 26-footer is a water ballast system developed during the late 1980s. Essentially, it provides for a heavy or light vessel whenever you want. Despite their size, these boats are particularly easy to tow with water drained out of the ballast tank. Fill the ballast tank when you launch the boat to give it stability when heeled under sail, drain the ballast when you pull the boat back out on the launch ramp and it can be towed by an ordinary car. Under power, the latest MacGregor model is now also a fast powerboat.

Early MacGregor 26’s had swing keels and tillers with a small outboard. The later versions have steering wheels and big outboards. The styling has changed over the years too. The original models looked more like traditional sailboats whereas the 26M looks definitely “Euro-powerboat” in appearance. People seem to love or hate them.


I found  the MacGregor 26 to be quite roomy below with all the amenities I would need. She had:
  • A large aft berth and vee-berth forward
  • An enclosed head with porta-potty
  • A galley area with sink and stove
  • A removable table
  • 6 feet of headroom under the sliding hatch.

I found the mast-raising system particularly attractive because the ability to raise and lower the mast with ease is one of my very important requirements to get me through the French canals. The MacGregor I visited had her mast raised by the owner on his own in the parking lot beside the launch ramp.

Out in the bay the boat sailed well in a strong breeze under just the mainsail. Roller furling on the jib would have made it easy to extend canvass without leaving the cockpit but she felt incredibly tender. More tender than most sailboats I am used to – more like a dinghy than a cruiser. What is more, despite her surprising ability as a sail boat she actually looks like a powerboat with a mast. She gave me the impression that she might suit a powerboater with an interest in sailing or someone who wants to trailer to distant places, stay onboard a few nights, and be able to race back into port if the weather starts to deteriorate but she had none of the romance I seek.

As a powerboat she looked strange cutting through the water with such a tall mast. As a sailboat she was boxy, high sided skittish and prone to massive leeway. So, she is not for me. Not that I could have afforded her anyway, the asking price was twice as much as my planned budget.

Now this blog has taken on quite a fishing theme in the last week or so and I’m making every effort to get back to main purpose but here is a true story that I simply have to share with you. As you may know the Island of Jersey UK is one of a small archipelago of Islands some 90 miles south of the UK. Politically English but in many ways culturally closer to the French, the principal Islands of the group are Jersey, Guernsey, Herm, Alderney and Sark. Jersey and Guernsey each has its own independent government and there is fierce rivalry between the two. To the Guernseymen, Jersey people are ‘Crapauds’ (Toads), while to the Jerseymen Guernsey people are Donkeys. No citizen of either Island refers to the other Island by name. Instead their neighbouring Island is ‘the other place’. Here is a recent piece of news from ‘the other place’ (Guernsey), reported with glee in the Jersey media.

Guernsey had a fishing competition last week and the prize of £800 went to a local man who presented the judges with a monster Sea Bass freshly caught. Unfortunately another competitor thought he recognised the prizewinning fish and called for an investigation.

How did he recognise the fish? Could you recognise an individual sea bass? Well, maybe yes you could - if the fish in question had been on public view as a live specimen in the local town aquarium. Following his hunch, he visited the aquarium the following day and asked to see the tank in which the sea bass lived – on inspection – no sea bass! It had been stolen.

The winner of the competition was in court on Wednesday charged with stealing a sea bass and fraudulently obtaining £800 in prize money. He was convicted after a the aggrieved angler and aquarium staff identified the sea bass’s head from among a line of other sea bass heads in an identity parade! – Well they say truth is stranger than fiction. You couldn’t make it up!

Seaward

7 comments :

  1. Hi David
    I quite enjoyed your fishing blogs. My pal has got a sea of galilee type throwing net , it works quite well. I was in Devon 2 weeks ago and saw 17 mullet swimming in with the tide in about 10 inches of water and had I have had it with me I could have caught a few mullet for my tea.
    I agree the MacGregors have a very open cockpit but that is about all to recommend them.
    I have continued to look at various models but am beginning to have second thoughts as the nearest marina to me Portishead charges approx £2000/ year mooring fees for a 24 ft boat. Other than that I have to drive 70 miles to either Cardiff (bridge fees £6.50 plus petrol per trip) or down to the congested south coast, with attendant traffic problems, which would take the shine off things for me. As you are close to the sea in both of your places that is not an issue for you, and you may have access to much cheaper moorings than this.
    I came across a forum Achilles boats on flickr. They have some quite interesting discussions on boat electronics something I know next to nothing about, and there is a chap on there who is currently blogging about his trip to the canaries (very brave). I was speaking with one of the chaps off this site and he has a pal who owns a leisure 23sL (which is apparently the mk11 version of the Leisure 23, and he is full of praise for it. Other boats that have come up are Newbridge Virgo (ugly) some of these have sailed to the azores and crossed the atlantic though.
    I was wondering if you look at the French section of Ebay as it may be easier for you to view boats in France than in the mainland UK. My lust for speed has had me continuing to look at Trimarans and came across this link for a 33 ft buccaneer in canada for offers on $12000. Doesn’t it look a flyer. http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Buccaneer-33-Trimaran-?cmd=ViewItem&hash=item27c9016388&item=170876035976&pt=Sailboats
    Back to reality I’m reading a book about an East West sail across the Atlantic called Vertue XXXV by Humphrey Barton in which they encounbtered the most horrendous conditions which makes me think you need something robust. Curses on John Allen and his beautiful blog as they have me considering wooden boats, and I hate varnishing.

    Regards

    Michael

    ReplyDelete
  2. What's to hate about varnishing? It's so easy. Where people go wrong, I think, is using those varnish replacement products that look ok (not great) for 3 weeks, and then look awful. Real spar varnish is simple as long as you keep up with it. Another case where the modern 'easy' approach isn't so easy.

    It would be easy to poke fun at the MacGreggor, but I'm struggling with my own accommodation problems at the moment and wondering if people in the 1940s were smaller or just had smaller expectations. I can't seem to come up with a cabin plan that I like.

    Ah well, back to the drawing board...

    Keep looking, David. Your boat is out there somewhere. I've been looking at an old Hillyard that looks really great to me. My wife would love that center cockpit...

    Hillyard 9 Tonner

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi John
    The boatyard where I keep my boat sells varnish but they do not get a high turnover of paints and varnish. I think the varnish may have gone off before I bought it, as I did a lot of prep, put on lots of coats yet it dried in runs and had poor adhesiveness. For example where I have rowed the varnish were the oar comes into contact with the boat has worn right back to bare wood. May be I need to put leather sleeves on the oars. That Hillyard does look in good condition. There is a very similar one on Ebay in the UK at the moment for about £5000.
    Regards Michael

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