Buying used 26X advice

[Timm Miller]

I would buy mine and take all of the guess work out of it

[Jim Bunnell]

Trying to stay ahead of the upgrades is a losing battle, I no sooner bought my 2003 26M and they came out with a few more improvements that I wish I had

I too have an early 2003 M. I asked Bill at Boats 4 Sail about purchasing some of the newer improvements, and he suggested contacting my original dealer. MacGregor has provided an anchor roller, mast cap and daggerboard with safety line (mine had broken and been lost) for no cost. Since I bought the boat as a used demo, I am impressed by this service. You might want to talk to your dealer.

I haven't asked about getting a sliding galley yet!

Jim

[Mark Prouty]

j.dower-the goal for a new user is to "jump-in" somehow. most on this board talk about wishing they had more power than the 50hp. so, for a newbie, get your best buy with an early production x (virtually the same boat in '96 as in '02), clean it up a bit, sell the old two stroke tohatsu that came with it, re-power with a larger engine (new or used), and you have got a vessel that would otherwise cost many thousands more for similar qualities and characteristics.
I see neglected '96-'98's frequently in the $12-14K range. They need TLC, but the original owner who bought it new years ago, now wants out and is willing to take what ever he can get.

I agree.

This is almost exactly what I did. Got my '96 in good shape for even less than the price range above and replaced the Force motor.

Before my purchase, I studied the mods through the years and determined they weren't worth thousands more.

I had a glorious fist season with this boat. I used the boat frequently and have taken it to the limits I dare go. I didn't have any trouble. I bent a rudder bracket but that was my own fault; I forgot to pull the rudder up before I powered off.

IMHO if the price right and condition of the boat is decent, the idea of purchasing an older Mac should not be dismissed.

[Mark Prouty]

Of Balsa and Foam Cores - an interesting article on foam coring.

Then there was the case of Airex, a widely touted foam whose use came and went as rapidly as the changing of the seasons. Airex was a different type of foam than the typical rigid urethane foams that we usually hear about. Here again, a new material was p romoted without R&D. A PVC based material, that is highly sensitive to heat, no one bothered to find out how this material would react to heat. Used on decks that heat up or on hull sides in way of hot engine rooms, Airex foam would soften, resulting in laminate distortion and delamination.

I'm sure Roger did his R&D for the decks.

Here's a good example. In one case, an older, solid fiberglass 42' Bertram (above Photo) and a custom built, cored hull 42 footer were docked side by side. The hurricane broke both boats loose and drove them across a bay where they were both badly battered against a concrete embankment along with a group of other boats. Both of these yachts sustained a near identical degree of battering. Can you guess which one held up the best? In fact, the cored hull yacht had nearly 50% of its hull destroyed and was sunk. The Bertram, on the other hand, despite an incredible battering, never had its hull breached and survived the storm without sinking.

Fortunately Rodger does not use a cored hull.

This balsa cored 60' Hatteras hull was subjected to the ultimate test. Not only did it take out two 16" pilings, but look what it did to the concrete sea wall. The outer laiminate was breached but the inner laminate remained intact.