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The
MacGregor26 is a great sailboat and is easily single-handed. With her ballast on board, she is no more tender than many
sailboats her size. The 26M has a daggerboard rather than a swing keel. She also has a rotating mast -- the latest technology
-- which presents a perfect airfoil at all times. The mast is very easy to raise and lower, and it doesn't require a backstay.
You will find occasional comments on chat lines about Macs not wanting to come about, particularly
in lighter airs. They are a relatively light boat without a lot of momentum, but there is a trick to everything. You need
the jib to get maximum speed and pointing in a light wind, but let it fly JUST BEFORE you put the helm over, not after you
come about. MacGregors want to stay on the course determined by the set of the sails. I have sailed a Mac26M upwind
for an hour and never touched the helm once. This is an excellent feature, but seems to work against coming about. When
you let the jib fly, the pressure on the main alone is behind the mast/daggerboard pivot point and tends to cause the boat
to round up, which aids the tacking manoever. Give it a try -- you'll be amazed how quick she comes about once the pressure
is off the jib. Another important trick with a Mac when sailing in stiffer winds is to keep
the sails as flat as possible. A baggy sail just catches wind like a spinaker, which isn't good when sailing up wind. I had
an embarrassing time recently -- couldn't make the boat GO, and was heeling like crazy, until I noticed that the
back-haul had let go and the mainsail was bagging. Keep the main halyard and the back-haul nice and tight, with a little pressure
on a boom vang, and adjust your jib sheet cars back to pull your jib more back than down, and you will take off like a scared
rabbit. With a sloppy main and the jib cars all the way forward, a Mac will lay down and sulk. I
read an interesting comment on a chat line somewhere about a guy who sails a Mac where the trade winds prevail most of the
time -- over 20kts. Says she works great with a reefed main and a storm jib (or the jib half rolled up on the furler).
It is true, this boat is no schooner, but it is a good light sailboat. There is nothing about her hull and rig that is particularly
unusual -- relatively flat bottomed hulls with dagger keels are common. The compromise is really on the motor boat side.
Even though the mast and rigging are fairly light, motor boats are not supposed to have an upside-down pendulum pointing at
the sky. Don't try to do slaloms! And the cockpit does not offer the kind of deck space you have in a motor boat. However,
they do plane, and they steer well under power if you use just the right amount of dagger board (too much and it will develop
sideways lift, causing heeling; too little and the boat will skate sideways when you try to turn.) 8 or 10 inches seems to
do the trick. Treat a Mac right and you will find that it is an extraordinarily versatile
boat.
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