Pre-Newbie saying hi and after some info

[Watto]

Hi guys,

My partner and I are getting into sailing in a big way, I myself have been in the Navy for 7 years and love all thing waterborn, especially sailing. We hope to be able to afford a trailer sailer in 2 years (or less, depending on how quick other toys have been paid off). Till then we are using the dinghies and corsairs of the ADF sailing club, and the yachts down at Jervis Bay.

Her only stipulation is that it has to be blue. Which leaves limited, expensive options 2nd hand in Australia. Noting how over priced these boats are down under compared to what our US friends pay, is it worth importing a second hand 26M from the states. What are the quarantine, tax and custom laws/regulations.

Also, we currently own a 05 Subaru outback 3.0L, the interweb states its towing capacity at 1800kgs. While lake burley griffon will be our regular stomping ground, only 5 min away, we do intend on road tripping. Is the Subi up to the task?

I noticed that there is a 26X owner in the ACT, I hope to get in contact with them to see if we can have a looksee at what looks like a very fun toy that neither of us cant wait to own! (we have already picked out a name, thats sad, righ...sad...)

[Berber Boy]

Hi Watto,

Welcome and hope something works out for you. We own a Blue 2008 and I currently tow it with a 99 dual fuel Pajero 3500 I wish it had a bit more up and go but it does the job. I would think that the Outback may be a bit light on for towing any substantial distance. By the time you have loaded up you are going to have a gross weight about 1600 kg which is near to your towing limit.

Importation has been discussed many times in this forum so you should search for those comments. If you do not succeed in viewing a in Canberra then you are more than welcome to call me or come up to Mittagong and look over mine. Send me a PM and I'll share contacts with you.

Keep the dream alive.

Cheers

Dave

[Clemo]

Watto, I live in Goulburn but sail my white X out of Batemans Bay.

I have hauled the big girl up and down Clyde Mountain with my Nissan Pathfinder, but its not fun.
On the flat highway the Pathfinder makes 80kph but you have to stop at every second petrol station.
I have used a van storage park down the Bay for some years now and am looking into "mast up storage" down there at present.
While I have moved my boat with my Subaru Liberty - truth is, she taxes the Pathfinder on hills.
I'm probably saying, if you live right by Burley Griffin you might get away with the Forrester.
But, loaded for a trip and cruise, a Mac gets close to 2tonnes. I think that I would be off to Kennards for a Landcruiser.

My 2cents worth. (And I have seen both Comodores and Falcons draging Macs up boat ramps.)

Now, I'm retired and have a house down the Bay. With a bit of organising we could meet down there for a sail if you want.

P.M. me.

On import/buy local - I bought local. I looked at about 5, and as many non-Macs and my O3X suits me fine.

Tks
C.Ya.

[Mac26Mpaul]

The guy that previously owned my boat told me he put it on the weighbridge and got 1920kgs. It has a plumbed toilet and fridge but they dont really weigh much. Dont know if he had the 50L water bladder full or what cruising gear at the time, but I figure I'm at least 2 tonnes on the trailer when Im going out for a few days (which is not actually legal on a Mac trailer I believe).

I currently tow with a 2001 Mitsubishi magna that has a tow capacity of 1500kgs. I towed it 200kms when I bought it ( a bit scary with a sidewind on the freeway,, and yes, pretty stupid too!) and otherwise once 30kms for an engine service, other than that, 200mtr trips to the boat ramp only. (a 4x4 will come a bit later for going further afield. I knew our car couldnt take this boat but I also new this boat offers more than all the other trailer sailers and so figured it was worth worrying about the car problem after buying the boat

Your car will handle it I reckon, but you probably wont be legal which will put you in a lot of trouble if something happens on the road...

Yeah its annoying that you can get them 10 or 15 grand cheaper in the US, and I thought about importing but at the end of the day, the hassle seemed like all too much. My 2008 with lots of good gear, cost 46k in Aus but thats still cheap compared to most boats of this size and age, and you dont get more boat for that money - its got a queen sized bed after all . There are some real bargains about now if your prepared to haggle too - I'm not sure that much could be saved from importing...

You have to get one as it will be good to see another ex pusser on the forum


Oh P.s blues ones go slower

[Watto]

Firstly, who said I was an ex pussa? I'm still proudly wearing the white ensign on my shoulder

Secondly, thanks to all who have responded so far, it is good to see a welcoming community on what I have been gathering can be a undersevadly lynched boat. The only people who don't like a Mac are the ones who don't seem to own a Mac.

Dave, My family is actually from Braemar and Willow Vale, you probably know of them, the Montgomerys. I would love to come up and have a reci of your boat, or better yet, where is your regular cruising ground.

Thanks for the offer aswell clemo. The girly and I are dead keen to get on the water, and at the moment we are limited to old corsairs on the lake, still lots of fun, but we want more. I hope to get down the Jervis Bay in May and take out one of the 25 footers the navy base has there over a weekend.

With the importing, the other reason is that there is a vast shortage of blue Ms around, probably because owners love them and don't want to sell , but seriously, I did the sums off the mac website, and for a brand new blue hull, with most of the bells and whistles and a donk, it came in at $34,000USD. Noting how strong our dollar is, It seems a bit over the top for Australian Dealers to charge $69,000AUD for the same boat, add to the fact that we cant buy new from the states without voiding warranty, has me scratching my head a bit.

[Mac26Mpaul]

There are a still a lot of extras you can get in a second hand but near new boat that are going to cost you thousands to do to a new boat. Can you really import it from the states without voiding the warranty?? And then you have to factor in all the costs and headaches associated with importing. Anyway, each to his own.

So you have been doing your research and you have come across the “Mac bashing” Yes, your right, a lot of it is envy. Really there are probably 4 types of Mac bashers. A) the racing boys and to them, this boat is no doubt rubbish, b) the would be ‘real sailers’ who believe that anything that planes with a motor on it, and doesn’t look like a traditional sailboat, simply isn’t one; c) the jealous ones and d) the bandwagon jumpers who have seen the Mac bashing and just copy it attempting to be funny and have their few minutes of fame, sometimes some of the most stupid comments are copied word for word across forums which can be rather amusing. After you have owned one of these boats for a while it becomes pretty obvious that the vast majority of these guys have never been on a Mac and wouldnt have a clue
The real truth is this:
It’s a trailer sailer, not a blue water keel boat and it is therefore designed and built for protected waters with limited coastal hopping, just like all trailer sailers are! It amazes me how many Mac bashers, usually on US forums, compare it to keelboats??? That’s kind of silly
As a trailer sailer, as they all like to say, it is a compromise (actually all trailer sailors are a compromise). You are getting a lot more internal volume and living space at a price of more windage on the hull. The windage can be annoying. To me the annoying part is that the boat will dance around quite a bit at the end of its hook which can be an issue in tight anchorages. There’s a lot of crap about how it sails out there. The facts are. It will beat a lot of them on a run, it sails quite nicely on a reach (although the windage will give it more sideways slippage than others when the wind picks up) and to windward it sails like a pig compared to others (slow and it does not point too well). For family cruising it sails perfectly fine, but if you were buying it for nothing but sailing, well you might consider something else. For motor cruising, it is far superior to all the other TSs as you would expect. Still the best parts to me are a) cruising at 6 knots or so, you can actually have a conversation in the cockpit or listen to the radio where as on most trailer sailers with screaming outboards, you just grit your teeth (maybe put your earplugs in) and keep looking at your watch wishing you could do an extra knot or two and hurry up and get there! The boat also has more internal volume than all the others and 6 foot of headroom under the sliding hatch. It is heaven to live with compared to some of those other Ts, and much better than just about all of them in this respect. Makes a great road caravan too. ON trailer sailer place the resident mac bashers recently attempted to make out the boat is not built strong. This is nonsense. It is hand laid glass the old fashioned way. Modern glass and resins are actually much stronger than the way they were several decades ago. The boat is not foam or balsa cored as some like to say. It is just as strong,if not stronger than half the other Trailer sailers about..
As long as you are clear on what you are buying ie, a highly capable sheltered water family cruising boat that can do it all, and not a fast performance orientated racing keel boat, then you are going to be very happy with this boat – trust me on that If sailing anarchy is the kind of forum you see youself fitting into, you may want to choose another boat though LOL

[deboep]

Hi Watto
We have a 26M which we bought new in 2006. We keep the boat in our backyard in Canberra. If you'd like to have a look I'd be happy to show you, just send me an email and we can arrange a time.

Cheers, Peter

[brianhar]

G'day Watto,
welcome to the forum and I cannot support the previous comments enough. I'm possibly the only nut who races their Mac (and therefore proving that Blue is faster). It's possibly the slowest upwind boat there is in a race, but she's not bad on a downhill run in 20+knots with the kite up .
There is no better trailable cruising boat (no discussion, just fact).

In regards to weight, here's something you need to think about. When I had the boat measured as part of trying to get the boat's handicap revised, I had to get the boat weighed in racing form, with all un-neccessary to racing (cruising things like fridge, TV etc) taken out. The boat and trailer came in at 1900kg. So as soon as you load in all the cruising kit, it will go passed 2t very quickly. .

Just to complete the weight story, the trailer weighed in at 400kg. Making the boat 1500kg dry, a far cry from the Manufactures spec. With ballast in the boat will come in at 2050kg min. Only real variable is the motor, as I have a 4 stroke at 114kg, V's an e-tec at I think 86ish.

Hope that we meet up sometime.

Regards

Brian & Val

[Watto]

Big thanks to Peter and Pat who gave Clare and I a very comprehensive look over of their beloved vessel. Am thoroughly impressed with all aspects of the Mac, and has made the uncontrollable urge to get my hands on one that much more, uhh, uncontrollable. It was very enlightening to hear what you can achieve with one of these, and the flexibility that it provides. It also assaged some fears that Clare had, mainly thanks to me dragging her onto a 15' envy that morning on the lake, she was not so impressed.

Now its down to Jervis Bay to get my inshore skippers certificate next week, then I can take out the Navy's Swarbrick 36' that they have down there. should hopefully tie me over till I can call myself master and commander of my own pointy caravan

[bartmac]

I like that "POINTY CARAVAN" well put!

[Mac26Mpaul]

yeah, pointy caravan with a stick and rag on top it is, ,Still its got to be the best trailerable floating caravan on the market, and most deffinately at that price

That weight point is worth mentioning again though. I think that a lot (probably most) Macs being trailered on Aussie roads are illegal The trailer is a worry and we are intending to get another axel fitted before doing any serios trailering. The drawbar as has recently come up on a few threads is a worry - If and when I get a new one, I reckon hot dip galving will be the priority! The winch on the trailer is also nowhere near up to the task of moving the boat, so always make sure you have the trailer in all the way to float the boat right onto it. My winch is completely bent out of shape (again) from having to try and move the boat a little bit forward with it. Actually, Whitworths have a 900kg rated winch on special at the moment half price, about 35 bucks (I think the Mac trailer winch is rated to 500kg). May have to try and get into whitworths for a look.

Check out this vid of the bay to bay. I copped a bit of crap from the Careel boys when I bought a Mac and sold the Careel And yet, it seems that a Mac is out in front of all the Careels in the Bay to bay, (I think that might even be Don there behind the Mac - the Careel national champion LOL). Shame the Mac didnt have a kite up as it would have probably been near the front of the pack. Mind you when they turned to windward, all those careels etc probably flew past LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=852Scirvivo

I may have coped some crap but I can say with absolute certainty that the Mac is a hull of a lot better all round boat to live with than the Careel was

Heres a good little add on for the Mac for someone
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Spinnaker-sail-s ... 43a6dce7ce
If I hadnt spent 1500 bucks on a new toy last week, I'd be thinking seriously about that one...

[Watto]

Well just got back from a week of sailing in Jervis Bay on the Navy's Swarbrick 36' down there, now I can hang my shiny new inshore skippers certificate on the wall......now I just need a boat.......hmmmmmm

[Cato]

The boat in the U Tube Video is Tony Taylors' boat.
he's located in Bundaberg, and that was his first sail in her.

I met him on the boat ramp at Hervey Bay, on the sunday afternoon - he had the bigggest grin on his face, very impressed with his new girl.

hmm.... guess we will need a spinnaker next year


Paul & Karen and Eliza
C'est la vie