Being able to beach it is the main reason I bought my 26-S. I haven't tried it yet. But I think I would want a way to pump out the ballast tank if necessary when it's time to leave. It's super easy and only takes a few minutes to pump out your ballast using a 12v air mattress pump. I only tried it ...

I ran aground my first time out. I should have looked at the charts and observed that most of the seemingly wide harbor was actually ~2ft above a giant mudflat....Boy was I glad to have a swing-keel! After pushing it ~20ft we realized we were about 100 yards into the mudflat...Luckily it was low tid...

Thanks for the advice! Yes, I have noticed a little slack on the upper leeward shroud, but have been hesitant to tighten any stays with anything but my hands out of fear of putting _too much tension on the mast... The links referenced were very clear, much appreciated. Glad to hear I'm on the right ...

I just bought a '91 "S", with virtually no sailing experience (except what comes from crewing on a tallship, and of course youtube). On my 3rd time out I was comfortably cruising @ 5 kts in ~10 kts of wind, with the main and jib. The hull is totally oxidized, the ablative antifoul is quite...

Hello, I am the new owner of a 1991 Mac26 "S" and am planning on doing an overnight trip to Hope Island in the South Puget Sound next week. I will have my kids and the water will be cold, so I am hoping to beach the boat so we can get ashore without taking a cold swim. We have pretty massi...

Hello, I am the new owner of a 1991 Mac26 "S". She sits on a trailer, so I raise the mast every time I've launched her (4 times so far in the last 4 weeks). I just wanted to check that I'm not setting myself up for failure - how tight should my rigging be? Every time I launch I loosen the ...

Thanks for the replies! Yes, pretty new to sailing - I grew up in LA surfing, and hanging out on friends' boats, I worked as cook on the Lady Washington for 4 mo...but this is the first boat I've been responsible for. It is the "26S" with no anchor locker, so there is not even a place to s...

Hello, I recently purchased a '91 Mac 26 that had been dry docked for a couple years, and am currently refitting her. I have a 9 lb (I think) Danforth anchor and am at a loss as to where to keep it. The easiest solution seems to be stowing it under the V-berth. This idea would be easy as long as I d...

Thanks so much for the advice! Rigging a topping lift seems simple enough, and looks like it would be better than relying on the boom leash. I will also follow advice and get to know how she sails before installing a boom vang.

Thanks again for the quick and helpful advice!

Hello, I recently purchased a 1991 MacGregor 26 that had been sitting dry docked for several years and have begun refitting her. I am pretty new to sailing; I have been on my friends' hobie cats, and my wife and I met while crewing on the tallships Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain, but have ne...