Unless you plan to race, go with the slugs. Like everyone has pointed out, they make life so much easier to drop the sail because they keep the luff under control especially while you trying to gather the main up to put your sail ties on

Not to be a shill , but there's the Speedy Rigger video available the this site's catalog ( I never bought one, so I can't vouch for it) When we did trailer sail our 26X it seemed to take forever, mostly because we never developed a system, so we'd also plan to stay at least a week. Now that we slip...

Depending on where you're at, snowloading could be an issue. Here in northern Illinois, I was concerned about snow loads on the mast when I used to store my X with the mast down so I wouldn't cover it with a tarp. Now that I leave it at the marina with the mast up, I still won't tarp it as I've hear...

I'd say you got a great deal on the boat, on the wife, not so much. All kidding aside I feel your pain. My wife panics whenever she feels Mack's Mac start to heel in the least. I threaten to my an inclinometer to show that we're no as heeled as she thinks, but I'm guessing it would be a waste of mon...

What you've got is an asymmetrical spinnaker which,unlike a symmetrical spinnaker, doesn't typically require a pole and the tack is attached to the fore deck, like a jib except that it is not fastened to the forestay. A symmetrical spinnaker, because of the pole and the tack is attached to a line, i...

Looking at the interior shot which shows a removable companionway ladder, which wasn't introduced until around 2000 leads me to think that unless the PO did the mod that I would like to do, your boat may be newer than a 1995. My 1998 came with the removeable step which sits on the hump with the vent...

You can remove the keel by removing the nut on the bolt that holds the keel hanger assembly. The nut will be covered in 3M 5200 so it takes some effort and imagination to get the bolt to drop down once you get the nut off. You don't want to beat on the bolt threads with a hammer. There should be sev...

I've been considering doing the same mod for awhile. What sort of container did you use on the inside? The one's at the marine suppliers are pretty expensive.

Unless Roger has really, really improved quality control at the factory, I wouldn't trust anything to be accurate that's been preset during production. My 98x didn't have the necessary reinforcement around the centerboard pivot pin, luckily I became aware of the problem thru sites like this one and ...

(But I'm still glad I replaced mine with stainless-steel cable.) Somewhere between 1999 and 2000, the factory switched from SS cable to line citing it as an improvement on the X. I've been very satisfied with having cable on my 98x BTW, not to be a pedantic, but it's a centerboard, not a swing keel....

So Kelly
"I woke up at 3am one morning, with two kids on board, to find 18 inches of water in the boat."
Did you ever figure out where that much water came in?

I finally put a passive vent in the very front on my 98 26X ballast tank. All of this talk about companionway steps got me to thinking back to when I wanted to remove enough of the lower step so that it would be level with the rest of the aft berth area, in other words lop off the the outer fibergla...

I had to replace my main halyard when I ran both halyards aft to a sheet stopper. Granted you can just tie a the shackle on with a knot, but get some fids and make a proper eye splice like the factory ones have. That way the yachties at the marina won't have another reason to make cracks about Mac o...

Now I understand why my Mercury 50 hp on my 26X sometimes hesitates when I first start cranking it despite the fact the size 27 starting and house batteries were fully charged and even when I've connected them in parallel via a combining switch. The original dealer used 4 AWG from the factory batter...

If it was done by the book, there should be several layers of barrier coat between the bottom paint and the gelcoat. My 26X had ablative bottom paint when I bought it used, so every few years, I rough it up with a 3M green pad and roller on another coat or two. It's in slip on the Illinios river and...