[Jeff_H]

I think that what we are all trying to tell you here is that any properly designed boat is designed as a system. The rig is designed to be proportionate to the stability of the boat and to the center of lateral resistance in the boat. Properly done, the boat should have a neutral helm and proper stability for normal conditions that the boat is expected to encounter. When you look at a budget counscious trailerable, there are issues of structure as well.

When you talk about adding a 6 foot bowsprit you are talking about a major change in the center of effort. (I once changed the rake of the mast on a 41 footer by 6 inches at the top of the mast and the helm went from weather helm to lee helm. You are proposing a change that will really make the boat dangerous because in a gust the boat will fight to turn down away from the wind and can lead to a serious knockdown.

Beyond that, having actually owned a 26 foot on deck 1939 Stadel Cutter, Cutters are a real pain in the butt on boats this small. It is not easy to tack the genoa through the slot.

If you absolutely feel that you must change your sail plan I would suggest a couple ideas. First I would think of adding a more modest bowsprit (18-24 inches or so) and move your forestay out there. If I remmber the Mac 26x correctly the boat has a fractional rig so I would consider going to a masthead rig. This will probably mean raising the spreaders and upper shroud attachment point. Then I would also add a boomkin and a longer boom so that the center of effort reamined where it is. This is adding additional strees on the boat so that shroud attachment points might need to beefed up. Lastly there is the stability issue. Having watched these boats in a breeze, they do not have great quantities of reserve stability and so you might want to look at increasing the boat''s stability as well.

Now, as some of the other posters have suggested, the Mac may have some under considered virtues, but as a well rounded sailboat in a wide range of conditions, the Mac is somewhat lacking. If you take the price that you can get for selling your Mac and add to it the cost to modify the rigs, there are a lot of other better boats out there that you can probably buy for less money.

Respectfully
Jeff