118 replies to this topic

[Rasputin22]

Boomer,

Thanks for the links. I spent many an afternoon during Woody's Seafood Saloon World Famous Three Hour Happy Hour trying to out BS Mad Mike. Problem was that no matter how outrageous his storied were, they were for the most part true! Looks like he did make it to Venuzuela with the Mac but can't seem to find any more about him after leaving for Sri Lanka.


As for Dunn, his website reports, "It was once said that Mike has more degrees than a thermometer, exists in perpetual puberty, and spends more time practicing for Jeopardy while reaching closer to Nirvana - or further away, depending on your point of view - than anyone else." There's more. The site also advises that Dunn usually works as an expedition and adventure travel guide, but on his off days is an international management consultant. The product of schools in California, Hawaii, and England - including Cambridge University - he's travelled to pretty much every country, island group, and territory on the planet. He has led or participated in climbs on the highest mountains on all seven continents, including Mt. Everest, reached the South Pole, parachuted over the North Pole, and sailed around the world as an expedition leader on several different cruise ships. A skilled scuba diver, hang-glider pilot, whitewater boater, and fixed wing and helicopter pilot, he sold his share of a small Antarctic expedition and air charter service to help fund his own expeditions. His friends call him Slacker. Just kidding about that. But seriously, does anybody know if he took off for Sri Lanka? - jim 05/09/06

[Keith]

This above argument pro or con, is like pissing in the wind.


I'm a multihull sailor, and I love to sail, any and all boats, that sail well, very well, that's my personal choice.


But how do you argue with a market place, that chooses to buy any product, to make it a successful seller. With out demand, there is no market.



Safe sailors, will usually be safe, cautious, and practice good seamanship skills.

Stupid dangerous sailors and or boaters, will continue too get into lots of trouble, all on their own, regardless of what they chose to be on, while out on the water.

[Rasputin22]

Maybe Mad Mike was consultant to the Chinese for the Mac 26 knockoff. Looks like he did make it to Sri Lanka, and here is the man himself!

http://s50.beta.phot...tml?sort=3&o=23

[Trickypig]

Booms your not going to take an honest opion from somone who has accualy had a bit to do with these boat's?......No one is making you buy one Boomer.

The only good thing I have to say about the MacGregors....is the unsinkable feature of the Ventures and the Macs.

Sorry to say Boomer ... it's the one feature they shouldn't possess.

[Tom Ray]

Booms your not going to take an honest opion from somone who has accualy had a bit to do with these boat's?......No one is making you buy one Boomer.

The only good thing I have to say about the MacGregors....is the unsinkable feature of the Ventures and the Macs.

Sorry to say Boomer ... it's the one feature they shouldn't possess.

Would that be because sailors whose preferences do not match yours deserve to drown?

Most boats are powerboats and many powerboaters express the same sentiments about sailors. Makes me want to spray them with my jet ski.

[Trickypig]

Has anyone read through the MacGregor site. Mr Macgregor wants to tell entry level buyers:

You can learn to sail in an afternoon (and as a backup its a powerboat).
Its a fast sailboat and the 26 surprisingly doesn't get beaten easily by the Macgregor 70 in light airs.
The boat can be seen in their video sailing in a full gale of around 50 mph winds with part furled jib and single reefed main.
"the Macgregor 26 is a really good powerboat" Direct quote
MacGregors solid glass hulls are better than their competitor' boats which are built with chopper guns and will have rotting cores.


The problem is the new owner finds:

You can't learn to sail in an afternoon.
It's not fast, in fact its probably slower than most 26 foot trailer sailers and the Macgregor 70 would sail past it like it was standing still.
It's not a good powerboat especially with a few bodies aboard and the normal stuff people want aboard their sailboats.
The video shows winds of about 25-30knots, not a full gale of 50mph winds.
You only get what you pay for in construction standards. ie It's not at all the best in construction standards.

In other words everything is exagerated and like most things, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is untrue and more likely worse than you might expect. It's boatshow snake oil selling to entry level buyers who can't know better.

[Trickypig]

A little while ago I phoned a friend who lives in a small town on the south coast of NSW where there are always good winds. He has raced and won in many classes as well as crewing on a Sydney Hobart winner. He is also now the secretary of the local club, a group who both race and cruise together and celebrate sailing in a very non-snobbish way. Like your group, Tom.

A local turned up with a Mac 26 and he was welcomed into the fold as a newbie sailor. To help him on the learning curve they suggested he enter in some of the fun non spin evening races. My friend went out with him to help him. I asked him how the boat was and he was less than charitable about the Mac 26.

It was a real `Babe' ... it didn't know whether it was a pig or a dog.

For the over 20k he'd paid, my friend reckoned he'd been `taken'.

[Trickypig]

Booms your not going to take an honest opion from somone who has accualy had a bit to do with these boat's?......No one is making you buy one Boomer.

The only good thing I have to say about the MacGregors....is the unsinkable feature of the Ventures and the Macs.

Sorry to say Boomer ... it's the one feature they shouldn't possess.

Would that be because sailors whose preferences do not match yours deserve to drown?

Most boats are powerboats and many powerboaters express the same sentiments about sailors. Makes me want to spray them with my jet ski.

No they're welcome to a lifejacket and the insurance payout to make a better advised purchase decision next time around.

[shanghaisailor]

Its cultural imperialism of the worst type because now the Chinese will think a good sailing boat is a Mac 26 ... oh the horror, oh the humanity.

They'll probably sell like hotcakes in China.

Not quite selling like hotcakes but have seen a few around, perhaps 3 or 4 - all imported.

I am not really sure of the current situation but if being built here under licence would not be surprised and they wouldn't be the only sailboat brand marketing to the Chinese market in this way. The J-80, for example is being built in Xiamen for the Chinese market and 30+ boats have been sold here.

You are right about some people being taken in though, we spent a good 3 months trying to convince someone NOT to buy a M26 and he still went ahead. Thing that amazed me is that after only 6 months in fresh water the blisters on the bottom were incredible

On the other hand there are those here who have bought the likes of X, Swan, J/V, Archambault etc etc

The scene is growing steadily but, by definition, as boat owners they are all newbies.

See ya on the water

SS

[Dale dug a hole]

The mighty Mac 26m

Is man best friend of things that float on water.

'Because it has a private head.'

Boomer out testing the Mac 26m

 boomer.jpg   401.79K   20 downloads

[JMD]

A little while ago I phoned a friend who lives in a small town on the south coast of NSW where there are always good winds. He has raced and won in many classes as well as crewing on a Sydney Hobart winner. He is also now the secretary of the local club, a group who both race and cruise together and celebrate sailing in a very non-snobbish way. Like your group, Tom.

A local turned up with a Mac 26 and he was welcomed into the fold as a newbie sailor. To help him on the learning curve they suggested he enter in some of the fun non spin evening races. My friend went out with him to help him. I asked him how the boat was and he was less than charitable about the Mac 26.

It was a real `Babe' ... it didn't know whether it was a pig or a dog.

For the over 20k he'd paid, my friend reckoned he'd been `taken'.

Keep in mind that it has a $7k outboard on it so that's only $13k for all the rest.

[boomer]

Has anyone read through the MacGregor site. Mr Macgregor wants to tell entry level buyers:

You can learn to sail in an afternoon (and as a backup its a powerboat).
Its a fast sailboat and the 26 surprisingly doesn't get beaten easily by the Macgregor 70 in light airs.
The boat can be seen in their video sailing in a full gale of around 50 mph winds with part furled jib and single reefed main.
"the Macgregor 26 is a really good powerboat" Direct quote
MacGregors solid glass hulls are better than their competitor' boats which are built with chopper guns and will have rotting cores.


The problem is the new owner finds:

You can't learn to sail in an afternoon.
It's not fast, in fact its probably slower than most 26 foot trailer sailers and the Macgregor 70 would sail past it like it was standing still.
It's not a good powerboat especially with a few bodies aboard and the normal stuff people want aboard their sailboats.
The video shows winds of about 25-30knots, not a full gale of 50mph winds.
You only get what you pay for in construction standards. ie It's not at all the best in construction standards.

In other words everything is exagerated and like most things, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is untrue and more likely worse than you might expect. It's boatshow snake oil selling to entry level buyers who can't know better.

That about sums it up right there.

[Tom Ray]

MacGregor is far from alone in exaggerating the capabilities and even technical specifications of boats. I've had the dubious pleasure of deconstructing various untrue or incomplete statements from several manufacturers, not to mention saying things they would not say, but that are true nonetheless. The one that gets me the most is that you really can hardly get an honest answer about just how much a boat really weighs, an important question for trailerable boats more than others, IMO.

I have personally fielded the question, "How hard is it to learn to sail?" from various people, most of them powerboaters tired of fuel bills. My usual response is that I could teach you the basics of HOW to sail in an afternoon and you could spend the rest of your life getting good at it. With that in mind, I'd rate MacGregor's statement above as partially true. It really doesn't take that long to explain how a sailboat moves, but that's a bit like learning the basic rules of chess. It hardly makes you competent, let alone a master.

My observation has been that powerboaters trying to escape fuel bills need to slow down, not move to sailboats, but for those who can tolerate a bad powerboat and a poor sailboat, moving to a Mac powersailer does work for some people. One of those is a local guy who had a bad habit of breaking daggerboards on his 26M because he liked to fish the flats under sail, and was pretty successful at it. The fishing part, that is. His sailing skills would appall most here, but he enjoyed it. I like seeing people enjoy boats.

[Great Red Shark]

All I can say is that I've had one of the silly things slipped next to me for a year or so now (never seen it leave the dock and I'm there a lot) and it's beginning to destroy my will to live. Seriously, it's so ugly I'm thinking about giving my slip up when I haul out and just trying my luck on re-assignement when I re-splash.

[Caca Cabeza]

Dudes. You are all seriously hashing my mellow. I've got a $30 nonrefundable deposit on a zxceuan wang tsoi "excelsior 26". Do you think I should walk away? I mean - it says it'll beat a 70 footer in light air and I can have a cabin cruiser the rest of the time?

What should I do? 30 bucks is 30 bucks...

[boomer]

Consider it a donation and move on....

[Aloha 27]

Consider it a donation stupid tax and move on....

Fixed.

[Icedtea]

I posted a similar thing about a knock off laser a while back, seems the companies put these up to "check the waters" to see if there's a market before moving into production with these things...wonder if they've had any takers?

[boomer]

Consider it a donation stupid tax and move on....

Fixed.

More likely an ignorant tax, with the preponderance of stupid sailors out there....that would be ignorance in the sense of "haven't got a clue"....