any other good power sailors besides MacGregor 26M?

[sailingdog]

T34C's suggestion has a lot of merit to it.

[tenuki]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

Tenuki—

Most of the boats that you're comparing the MacGregor to are older, full-keel, bluewater designs... the Albin Vega, Folkboat, Contessa 26, etc are often common choices for a smaller bluewater cruising boat... not quite the same category as a MacGregor 26.

Sure they are, they are in the category 'sailing speed has been compromised for other concerns'

The fact that more people motor than go bluewater would tend to imply that macgregor 26Ms are a better compromise....

( Of course you'll never catch me on a 26M, they are just too ugly for words and my sailing snob friends would never let me live it down. )

[sailingdog]

Originally Posted by tenuki

The fact that more people motor than go bluewater would tend to imply that macgregor 26Ms are a better compromise....

Aesthetics aside, yes, the MacGregors are ugly, sailing performance is not the only compromise the MacGregor makes though.

IIRC, the newer ones have some serious stability and performance problems if you forget to empty the water ballast and motor, or sail and forget the water ballast.... I think it is not a good idea to compromise the seaworthiness of a craft that way. This means you have to remember to charge/empty the water ballast when switching modes... which you may want to do in a hurry, say if a summer squall is coming through...or if the sails or mast get damaged... which seems pretty likely, given how weak a spar they use for the mast.

[captron400]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

I would have mentioned the Telstar, but it sounds like it is both a bit out of his price range and also a bit bigger than he'd like to go. Have you ever seen one in person... it dwarfs a Cape Dory 25, even without the amas spread out... and it's pretty big compared to even a MacGregor 26.

A true monohull sailboat, won't generally motor well, since the things that give a monohull its stability detract from its ability to motor... A monohull that motors well, will generally have poor sailing performance, as seen by the MacGregor 26, which has a very small mast and relatively small rig for a boat its size.

Multihulls can get away with doing both well, at a cost... They tend to be a bit more expensive, and their beam can make docking them, unless they fold in some way, much more expensive.

I've sailed a dozen trimarans in the past 5 years, and I'm on the Telstar waiting list (but penciled in because I'm trying to sell a 40 foot Catalina first). Yes - It's pretty big (wide), but this one is stable enough for motoring (at close to 20 knots even) with the floats drawn in. This, and the very easy mast raising system) is why it moved ahead of the rest of the 3 hull competition. The skinny water down here in SW Florida has sent me in this direction. My 6 foot draft C400 (still in NJ) has about as much chance of getting into my inlet during the winter as a Nimitz class carrier.

I figure that I'm paying about 20 percent more than a comparable monohull. But, with it's 1 foot draft, I'll be able to use it regardless of what the tide is doing, or how the wind is affecting it. The extra 10+ knots of boat speed under sail or power is a 2nd plus. And it's much easier to trailer, launch, or retrieve than a 25 to 30 foot keel boat.

There's absolutely no way to do all of the above with a monohull.

[dogear]

You might keep an eye out for the KIWI 280C. It's brand new, designed in New Zealand, cast offshore ?, then commissioned here. It has a daggerboard, 28', standup shower, and was designed by racing naval architects. I've seen their 28' carbon racer run away from everything on our lake, so I suspect this is a sailor's sailboat.